First, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that halted education in the Tigray region, and then, a deadly war, claiming many lives and displacing hundreds of thousands.

Tenth-graders Yonas Nugus and Helen Berhe escaped with their families when their school in the town of Maychew was closed due to the war. Education was the last thing on their minds at the time, but they said they did not give up hope.

“The situation seemed hopeless and never-ending. It was tough to overcome, but we managed to get through it,” said Yonas, who like Helen recently completed a national exam and qualified to go on to university.

The Tigray conflict flared up in November 2020 following a dispute between Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray regional administration led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or the TPLF party, which previously ruled the country.

The United Nations and other institutions estimate that 600,000 civilians died in Tigray and more than 2 million were displaced from November 2020 to August 2022.

In addition to the death and displacement, some women and girls were subjected to rape, as recorded by human rights agencies.

“During the war, a smart student with us committed suicide when they entered her area and raped her,” Helen said.

“When I heard stories like that, I wasn’t sure that something like that could happen to me tomorrow. It was not the time you could come in peacefully for school. So, even if I was going to die, I believed I would die fighting for my freedom.”

For Yonas and Helen, both 17 at the time, the war had halted their dreams, but it did not kill those dreams; it just delayed them.

In November 2022, the government and TPLF rebels concluded a cessation of hostilities agreement in Pretoria, South Africa.

As the recovery from war began, school restarted, and the survivors came out of hiding and returned to Kallamino school in Maychew. The students from Tigray whose education had been disrupted were provided with special teaching materials and teachers to make up for the lost time.

“When we returned, our school lay in ruins. Our belongings left behind due to the COVID-19 pandemic were strewn about,” Helen said.

“Before the war, it took us a year to complete a class in school. However, we had to finish a year's education in just four months after the war. Then, we had to take the test. It was a very irregular learning process.”

For Helen, the past has been challenging, filled with fear and anxiety. She has forgotten much of what she was taught before the war and faces a new language barrier because the instruction is now in English. But she also said the war taught her a different kind of lesson.

“It taught me to find purpose in life,” she said, attributing her success to this experience.

“I convinced myself that the past three years had been wasted and I needed to work hard for the future. I learned from the difficult times that I must walk with purpose. So, with the help of our friends, we finished our two-year course quickly,” Helen said.

In the latest national exam results in Ethiopia, only 5.4% of high school students passed the university entrance exam, according to Minister of Education Birhanu Nega.

Of the 674,823 students who took part in the entrance exam in the last academic year (2022-2023), only 36,409 obtained the average required to be admitted to university. That figure was an improvement compared with the previous year, when only 3.3% passed the exam.

Yonas recorded the highest score of all those taking the test, scoring 675 out of 700 points. Helen scored highest among female students, getting 662 points out of 700.

Yonas and Helen will now pursue higher education at the University of Mekelle, the region’s capital, or in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. Yonas has chosen to study computer science; Helen plans to study medicine, specializing in neurology.

Schools halted in Amhara region

As Tigray starts recovering from war, students in another part of Ethiopia face an uncertain future as schools were shut by a new conflict between government forces and Fano rebels.

In the town of Bahirdar, capital of Amhara region, parents did not send their children to school for a week after explosions shook the city earlier this month.

Two students and a teacher were injured in an explosion on October 4, said Mulualem Abe, the head of the city's Education Department.

Days earlier, two teachers were killed in Sinan district of East Gojam zone in Ethiopia's Amhara region after being shot by gunmen, authorities said.

In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the local administration said the teachers were preparing to start their teaching work for the current school year, which started in late September.

Without naming a particular group, the statement accused armed groups “who swear in the name of the Amhara people” of being behind the killing.

A spokesperson for the Fano rebel group denied involvement in the killing of the teachers but indicated they are against the reopening of schools.

This story originated in VOA's Horn of Africa Service. Aster Misganaw contributed to the report from Addis Ababa.

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