Addis Abeba — The Amhara Regional Education Bureau has announced that only 21% of the expected high school students have registered so far, despite the official start of student registration on 25 August 2025.
The region aimed to enroll a total of 7.4 million students for the new academic year. However, officials confirmed that by 12 September fewer than three million students had registered.
Mulunesh Desie (PhD), head of the Amhara Regional Education Bureau, stated, "Our registration plan is to enroll around 7.4 million students to make up for the learning losses from last year and the year before. As of September 12, close to 2.9 million students have been registered."
She noted that the low turnout is especially evident among high school students. "It's a trend that high school students do not register early. Only 21% have registered so far," she told the regional broadcaster.
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Mulunesh added that the bureau expects enrollment to increase in the coming weeks. "Nationally and regionally, high schools and areas with security problems are the biggest challenges we've seen. We expect better progress in these areas than last year," she said.
Although classes began on 15 September across the region, Mulunesh urged students who have not yet returned to school to register promptly.
She also called on stakeholders to help address the educational setbacks of the past two years. "I ask that everyone do their best to make up for the achievements we lost in the previous years," she said. "I ask all parties to keep education free from politics and to leave our schools and educational activities to us."
On 25 August 2025, Addis Standard reported, citing the Amhara Regional State Education Bureau, that registration for the 2025/2026 academic year had officially begun. The bureau announced a target of enrolling 7.4 million students, noting that millions of children in the region remain out of school due to ongoing security challenges.
Mulunesh, stated that the bureau was prepared to register 7,445,545 students. Registration was scheduled to run from 25 August to 5 September, with classes set to commence on 16 September.
Data from UNICEF shows that 4.4 million children in Amhara did not attend school during the 2024/2025 academic year, the highest number in Ethiopia. Over the past two years, armed conflict and insecurity have prevented millions of students from returning to classrooms, leaving many areas with interrupted teaching and learning.
"Floods, droughts, the northern war, and the current state of instability have severely challenged the region's education system," Mulunesh added.
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Getachew Biyazn, head of public relations at the bureau, told local media that the government is prepared to fully resume schooling. "We have allocated a large budget to train over 10,000 teachers and school leaders. More than 24,000 teachers have also received training through the Ministry of Education," he said.
The preparation comes against the backdrop of low enrollment in 2024/2025. The bureau had planned to enroll seven million students, but only 2.8 million were registered. A regional education forum in Bahir Dar in March 2025 highlighted that ongoing conflicts between armed groups and government forces continue to disrupt the education system.
