Is the Glass 12.8% Full or 87.2% Empty? - Assessing the Success of Ethiopia's Education Reform

[Addis Standard] Addis Abeba -- In September 2025, I wrote an article titled "Who bears blame for consecutive low national exam pass rates in Ethiopia?", which was published by Addis Standard following the Ministry of Education's announcement of the Grade 12 national examination results. At the time, only 8.4% of students--48,929 out of 585,882--had achieved the minimum passing score of 50%, qualifying them for university enrolment. In that piece, I argued that the results painted a consistent picture of a profound systemic fracture