Addis Abeba — The Addis Abeba City Administration cabinet has announced new multi-lingual education curriculum by adopting Afaan Oromoo as supplementary language to be taught in all schools in addition to Amharic and English.

The curriculum also sees Amharic as additional subject to be given in Afaan Oromoo schools and for pupils who attend Afaan Oromoo classrooms in all schools across the city.

However, the new curriculum did not state a decision on the controversial issue of the hoisting of Oromia regional state flag and the regional anthem to be played in the schools, but it said the Afaan Oromoo curriculum which has been copied from the Oromia regional state to be taught in Afaan Oromoo classes in the city schools would be scrapped and replaced by the new curriculum.

The flag and anthem controversy has led to unrest and violence in several schools in the city, leading to the detention of dozens of students and teachers, who have since been released.

In addition to schools dedicated teach in Afaan Oromoo, the City Administration's Education Bureau has been running separate Afaan Oromoo classrooms in all schools in the city for students who wanted to learn in their mother tongue for the last five years. To do so, the bureau has been using education curriculum copied from the Oromia regional state, which stipulates regional flags to be hoisted and regional anthem to be played in these schools which sparked controversies and led to violence.

The statement issued by the city Mayor's Office this morning said that the curriculum was a result of a study under the supervision of Kotebe Metropolitan University and has been thoroughly discussed and debated by stakeholders including linguistic experts, teachers and parents.

Accordingly, based on students' choices, Amharic or Afaan Oromoo will be one medium of instruction for subjects to be give to pupils until grade seven when it changes to English. Arabic and French will be given optionally for 9th and 10th graders. AS