Before the dawn of the 20thcentury, the Ethiopian school system had been dominated by religious teachings. The educational schooling of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Mosque were the dominanttraditionaleducationsystems.1 Ethiopia began its first formal education after the introduction of Christianity to Ethiopia in the 4thcentury, during the Aksumite Kingdom. This resulted in organized formal education teaching and the learning process began with the ancient Ge'ez language. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church follows its own designed curriculum and learning methodology, with the passing of organized structures from generation to generation.2 In similar way, the traditional Islamic faith's began formal education , attached to and promoted by the centers of the Islamic religion, had a parallel purpose of spreading the reading and writing of Arabic, the study of Islam, philosophy and law, and the teaching of the Qoran.3 Both the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Islamic religion have contributed much more to the advancement of civilization in Ethiopia..

Concerning studies conducted on the history of Ethiopian education, they point the out, the foundation of Emperor Menilik II in 1908 as a watershed moment in the country's beginning modern educational system.4As a result, Ethiopia’s first modern school, the Ecole Imperiale Menelik, was opened. School teachers came from Egyptian Coptic educationalists; they were brought into Ethiopia to teach various subjects, at first at primary and later at secondary level. Teaching included French, English, Italian, Amharic and Ge'ez as well as mathematics and science, physical training and sports.5After the death of Emperor Menilik II, there was also an expansion of primary schools in Addis Ababa, which was opened by France. Reading, writing, arithmetic, and French were taught, as well as Hygiene, Geography, History, Science, and Morals, with one hour a day devoted to Amharic. In1925 regent Teferi Mekonnen opened a school. Most subjects, which were thought in the school inclined to French, the period from the 1920s up to the Italian invasion witnessed a remarkable expansion of primary schools both in Addis Ababa and in major provincial towns.6

Following the liberation in 1941, there was a period of reconstruction that lasted until the mid- 1950s.The government's first aim was to have educated citizens for the running of an effective bureaucratization service for society.7Second, the imperial regime's main goal was to establish a Modern, strong, and effective government.8As a result of this restructuring, in 1942, the Ministry of Education and Fine Arts was founded, and a new push to reform education began across the country. As a result, schools began to spring up in some of the country's major cities. During the post- liberation period, we saw the expansion of primary and secondary schools in Ethiopia.9It was in 1943 that Haile Sellassie I secondary school (Kotebe), the first secondary school in the country, was established in the capital (Addis Ababa), followed by Harar and Gondar in the provinces.10It was during 1943 that the history subject started to be provided as a school subject and a history curriculum and syllabus were designed for the first time. Until 1967, this syllabus had been subject to severe revisions. In the process, some of the problems with history teaching were discussed, and hence, so much improvement has been made since 1958. 11

Since history teaching formally began in schools, we could not find a sufficient amount of research about history education regarding teaching, writing, and popularization. There are many challenges that Ethiopia’s senior secondary school history teachers encounter while teaching history. As a history teacher, I am engaged in exploring the major issues that history teachers encounter in their daily professional lives while teaching history education. There are some attempts to conduct research related to history teaching, for instance. Abebe Fisseha (1992) conducted research aimed at examining the problems of history teaching, both the historical background and current status in Ethiopian senior secondary schools in terms of syllabus, text books, and classroom practices.12Likewise, Alebachew Kemisso (2010) conducted historical research related to these issues to explore changes and continuity in the Ethiopian history curriculum from 1961-2006 in Addis Ababa University 13Anotherresearch studies conducted by Desta Bekele (2006) by focusing discussion what kind of strategies methods and techniques can history is taught more effectively, he wanted to answer in the main research paper how the teaching learning process history in the first cycle especially grade 9 and 10 of senior secondary schools of Hadiya Zone was going.14 However, all researchers did not state deeply presence teaching history and its challenges, the purpose of history teaching in senior secondary schools, and they did not show problems with coherent history writing in students' texts.

As a history course that has been delivered to senior secondary schools in Ethiopia since its inception in1943, the problem is tied to teaching and writing history education for students, which is obviously vastly seen in senior secondary schools, where educational history has not been given sufficient attention by well-trained historian. This research is geared to providing evidence- especially for effective teaching and writing history. Besides, the writer of this seminar paper identifies gaps in our knowledge by focusing. Practical problems in the teaching of history at present exploring the curricular history of teaching in Ethiopian senior secondary schools and I am engaged in searching for problems with the writing of history subjects in student textbooks in terms of syllabus organization and content selection, I want to fill those gaps by researching and providing reliable evidence. To do so, the following research questions were formed and wanted to be answered during the study.

1. What is the purpose of history teaching in senior secondary schools?

2.           What do history teachers need to know?

3.           Do students have interest in learning history?

4.           What is the teacher’s awareness of the challenge in teaching and learning history in Ethiopia? 5.What are the main conducive and practical problems facing historians in writing coherent history in Ethiopia?

Themethodologyofthisstudyisqualitativeresearchindesign,whichprovidestheresearcherwith pertinent answers to the research questions and helps me to address the research objective. The study relied on data gathered from both primary and secondary sources. Thus, secondary sources such as books, MA theses, reputable articles, and journals weregatheredfromlibraries and the internet. Regarding the primary source, an informant interview was used to substantiate the research (see further in Appendix A). Besides, I choose a purposive sampling technique (deliberate choice). The writer intentionally sought out history teachers to gain particular information on the given topic.

2. Aims and Purpose of Teaching History at Senior Secondary Level

It is true that the aims and purpose of teaching history have gone through changes with the shift inthe philosophical thinking of the time and changes in social and political practice. Since the beginning of 20th century, Ethiopia carried out to reform the educational sector for three times. According to Tekletsadik Mekuriya, Emperor Menilik II was filled with great enthusiasm about the importance of modern education when he issued the first education decree in 1906. The proclamation gave the basis of modern education legitimacy through the force of law. Around 150 students, including sons of nobility, clergy, and poor children, started schooling in 1908. Most of the teachers came from Orthodox Egypt – Alexandria. The main aim of education during that time was to learn foreign languages.15After thedeathofEmperorMenilik II, Empress Zewiditu followed in the footsteps of her father work and in 1929, she proclaimed an educational decree.Yet, the type of education system they were inclined toward was more of the traditional church education type.16From this, we conclude that royal families and their educational policies were concerned. As professor Bahru says," a happy compromise between tradition and innovation"17

Inthepost-liberationperiodfrom1941upto1970,theeducationsystem was intended by the imperial regime to achieve two purposes. First, it was planned to produce citizens who respect and love their country, their emperor, and their religious beliefs. The second aim was to make education serve as a medium for civilization and development, the Emperor made good endeavors and is said to have brought in the "Golden Age for Ethiopia’s Modern Education."18In line with this, between 1941 and 1970, the Ethiopian education sector was shaped by two major ideas about what education is good for. The first one was the Emperor’s conviction that modern education, preferably carried out by Lutheran missionaries, was an excellent strategy to educate and train citizens. The second idea that shaped the Ethiopian education sector was that put forward by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization on the role of education in the economic development of a state 19

In due course, history as a school subject, both in the primary and secondary schools of Ethiopia, began to be offered from 1943 onwards. As a result, the subject played a significant role inshaping the critical skills of students. Since 1957, the first organized curriculum and syllabus began by setting out the following four objectives: First, by informing students about past historical developments in their country and the world at largesecond, by broadening students' minds by examining historical events across the five continents, third, by allowing students to weighevidence critically, which would help them acquirethe skills to distinguish "facts" from "opinion," "history" from "legend," and "biased" and "prejudices" in historical accounts and fourth, tomaking students good citizens 20The contents of history books and textbooks, writing and teaching of the imperial era were no doubt characterized by the prevailing narrative framework ofa central imperial government, dominated by a highland literate core of the modern state makers’ and the authority possessors' since at least the 13thcentury. This ‘a hegemonic model, centered on the Christian highlands, where the historical kingdom going back to the Axum Empire was located21

After the ouster of the Imperial government in 1974, Derg inclined towards and followed a socialist ideology. Marxist–Leninist education policy is a necessity for well-rounded and fully developed human beings.22 In this regard,Teshome in his work shows the general guiding principles and the new national aim of education were as follows: the first aim was education for production; the second aim was education for scientific inquiry and research and finally, education for socialist consciousness.23During that time, history classes included as one subject aimed at instilling socialist ideas as well as blaming the imperial régime, for example. Mesay Kebede, a student who taught only in grade ten, explained that Ethiopian history was portrayed by textbooks as the unspeakable reign of abad feudal system whose backwardness and limitless mistreatment of peasants condemned the country to be one of the poorest nations in the world, thus a squarely blaming tradition and the past for the present harm without balancing it with an account of the positive side. The history course amounted to an infusion of "shame, contempt, and disgust."24

Following the regime change in1991,the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front took power and, as a result, in 1994, formulated the Education Policy of Ethiopia. It was part of the general changes in political, economic, and social order in Ethiopia.25The new educational policy formulated a general aim for each discipline regarding the main emphasis of the history curriculum aim and teachings was in general secondary education and were based upon the provision of basic historical knowledge and aquatinting the learner with major methodologies the scientific research methods that help learners arrive at truth and sound generalizations.26

3. Teaching and learning History at Senior Secondary School

When did learning and teaching of the early formal history teaching begin in Ethiopia? Some sources give little information about it. In this regard, Alqa Imbakom justifies that, for a long period of time, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, in particularly served as a center for teaching and learning the history of individual kings in the form of tarik negest. To further Imbakhom explain, One course that was given to students of YeqoloTemari was learning about Ethiopian kingshistory (takes a year to complete the course) .27

The birth and interest of modern schooling in Ethiopia were initiated byImperial regime, firstly looking for of European technological power. Second, in the post-Adwa period, the more intensive relations with Europeans created generous chances for the spread of modern education in the country.28As a prolific Ethiopian historywriter Pankhurst, we describe the first initiation of Emperor Menilik II founded a school in the palace in the early years of the twentieth century,the schoolwas headed by one of the Emperor's nobles, Kenyazmach Ibsa, and attended by a number of young courtiers who were taught good manners, reading, writing, calligraphy, religion, Ethiopian history, law, and Geez. A few years later, the Emperor, fully aware of the shortcomings of the first school, decided to hire foreign teachers.29After the introduction of modern education in Ethiopia, both teachers and content were imported from abroad. During the period 1908-1936, the goal of teaching was to develop Ethiopians who were fluent in European languages, with the hope of contributing to the country's continued sovereignty. As well, the goals of education were to maintain the governing class in for better contact with the outside world and to prepare them to handle court cases and define legal articles.30 So teachers were forcing students to learn, understand, and fit into a foreign curriculum. Indeed, the country's dependency on foreign teachers and textbooks not only resulted in the socialization of young Ethiopians into western values but also produced indigenous workers prepared to work as trade partners ,interpreters, clerks, etc31. All the above endeavors became futile when the second Italian invasion, 1936-1941, came to Ethiopia. The Italians were interested in building up youth with an education centered on their political ideology. During this period, education for the natives was restricted to elementary schools. This incursion resulted in the prewar attempts at the introduction of modern schooling coming to an end, exterminating educated Ethiopians, and for these and other reasons, constituting a fairly negative chapter in the history of Ethiopians.32 Ethiopian nationals were limited to up to grade 4, the content of education centered on reading, writing, and simple arithmetic, semi-vocational skills training, and internalizing fascist values to promote loyalty to Fascist Italy.Textbooks were written in Italian and focused on Italian history and the greatness of Italy. By doing this, students must know nothing and simply accept their inferior status.33

From 1908 to 1944, there was no teacher education program in Ethiopia. In 1944/45, Menilik II School started a teacher training school for primary school teachers. In 1950/51, latter on the University College of Addis Ababa opened by consisting faculties of Arts and Science as result, a secondary school teachers training program was started .34Following liberation from Fascist rule, over a dozen primary schools have been opened in Addis Ababa and major towns in the country. Consequently, there were challenges in the educational system of the country, to mention some short-falls in teachers and absence of textbooks. Furthermore, in secondary schools, over half of the teachers were still English-speaking expatriate staff.35 In a due process1940s until 1973, the British and United States of America governments, respectively, were involved in Ethiopian educational systems in terms of a substantial amount of educational aid, opening of schools, providing teachers, offering scholarships for Ethiopian students, supplying books, and providing instructional materials.36

In connection with this, in 1943, the teaching history discipline started at secondary school level alone subject. In that earlier time, the subject of history teaching faced some problems like a lack of an organized curriculum and foreign expatriate teaching staff dominated. That resulted in a Discussion about the nature of history courses which were provided in Ethiopian schools.37In the 1960s, teaching and learning history education at secondary school, college, and university levels became more professional with the integration of professional history teachers and dynamic research. According to well-known scholars, Crummy Donald and Bahru Zewde justified this in their work. First, the establishment of what is now Addis Ababa University’s Department of History, and the desire to develop appropriate programs for a country whose most founder sassumed an Africanist rather than a Middle Eastern context. 38 Second, in 1963, at the former Haile Selassie University, the Institute of Ethiopian Studies opened. It helped a lot with the growth of the academic sphere in historical studies and abundant research regarding different topics.39 The teaching and learning process in the 1960s met some short-listed main impediments. The country's economic backwardness has severely hampered the spread of modern education and affected the quality of teaching. The first was born out of the unbalanced distribution of schools in places like Addis Ababa, Eritrea, Showa,andthemost important urban areas. Second, the imperial government's budget allocation for the expansion of modern schools was very low. All those situations vividly showed students learning in overcrowded classrooms, and added the lack of qualified teachers and the scarcity of textbooks, which generally lowered the standard of teaching in schools and encouraged extensive copying and memorization as methods of learning.40

In the Derg regime, all senior secondary schools that were founded throughout Ethiopia taught history education tied to grand narratives of Marxist ideology.41 The main aim of education was to be an instrument by which the socialist ideology could be inculcated in the minds of students.42 In the educational sphere, the socialist government faced two challenges. Firstly, it was not guided by a policy and lacked well-articulated, long-term national objectives. Secondly, to a certain extent, due to serious-handed intervention from the government, education facilities were instable. Yet, the government was able to achieve good accomplishment in expanding primary and secondary schools, which dramatically increased in urban and rural areas, respectively.43 Since 1991, after the expulsion of the Derg government, the Ethiopian people’s Revolutionary Democratic Front took central power, in the educational area the new government shattered the past and old philosophy of education for education’a nd gave emphasis to a pragmatic approach by valuing education in terms of only solving immediate problems. For pragmatists, the teacher is afacilitator, not an authoritarian. The method of instruction is problem solving, experiential learning, inquiry methods, and fieldtrips. Learning is in groups and in individual students engaged in learning actively, yet the absence of a good environment in general and large classrooms in particular, and low engagement of students in the learning process and taking no responsibility for theirown learning. Pragmatic philosophy does notwork properly in schools.44

4. History Teaching and Methodological Strategies

Effective education is largely dependent on the good instruction that is provided in the actual classroom. As aresult, it is critical to pay close attention to the changing tradition of teaching

methods.45 Before directly going to effective teaching history, let us familiarize with the essence of teaching, method, and strategy. Teaching is viewed as an art, it involves much more thanproviding information to students because demonstrating the ways in which the teacher uses creative ways to teach the students and so the students find it to be fun and interesting to learn.46.Duringthe 1960s in Ethiopia, professional teaching methods began.47Professional teaching depends on the quality of training and the relative weight given to knowledge-based (content) and to skill based (method) History teaching.48 In concerning, a method is a way of doing something. It is an approach which a teacher adopts to impart a subject matter to a group of learners .Strategyis a teaching devices or techniques adopted by a teacher to teach a lesson. Strategies include the use of films, games, textbooks, library studies, projects, field trips, and simulations. Strategies act as a stimulus to learning,49when a teacher chooses a method or strategy, the following factors must be considered.

           Suitabilityofmethodtothelearnerandthetopic.

           Theinterestof thelearnersmust beconsidered.

           Teacher’s mastery or technical know how of the method/strategy to be adopted

           Both the chronological and mental age of the learners must be considered

           The period of the lesson must be taken into consideration in selecting any method/strategy

           Give room for individual differences in the class50

The most important thing a historian should know is toteach historyfacts, as advised by the renowned scholar Professor Mesefn Woldemariyam, (2005)as the past generation stood for the present generation, and as a result, to build the next generation is to evaluate the origin and destination of social and public life, change, the extent of its development, and the type and intensity of conflicts, and strengthen those measures by understanding the origin and destination of human work.51 From the stand point of this teaching history is quite different to teaching other subjects. History classes are distinct from science and mathematics classrooms, as well as humanities classrooms such as English, Social Studies, Geography, and Politics. As Tan Doreen (2004) justified in his article “what is history teaching and learning” describe both process mainHistorians job to give meaning to historical facts, so history students should actively put up and give meaning to their historical knowledge if they hope want to achieve historical understanding.52. One teacher can make teaching history meaningful to students by linking teaching with students' experiences and by building certain concepts in avariety of ways.Teachers should help students to understand that many current human problems like social, political, diplomatic, and economic in nature.A second history teacher needs to have a certain understanding and attitude to motivate students to learn history. A teacher should understand his students' needs and interests and the methods best suited to them.53

As my informant Ato Tesfaw zegeye, says one thing historyteachers should knowis how to create an enjoyable and productive learning environment using textbooks and outside resources, including primary and secondary materials, and relevant interactive media. More and more, history teachers are moving toward technology to help recreate worlds and events, so keep reading to find a list of some of the top class room apps.54In addition to this, Boadu (2015) says that to be effective historyteachers, they do things like preparing themselves with adequate planning in content knowledge and methodology, collaborating with other teachers, and relating lessons to students' prior knowledge. They use multiple instructional methods and resources in conveying content, creating a supportive learning environment, and using alternative assessment techniques.55

5. Historical challenges and practical problems teaching of history education at senior Secondary Schools in Ethiopia

According Abebe Fiseha sincehistoryschool subjects in 1943, Ethiopian students have had a great problem with the medium of instruction being English. Most students face a language barrier because high school history classes are taught in medium English rather than their mother tongue, creating language barriers in which students do not easily understand the teaching history subjects.56Adding to this, Professor Bahru related to the Amharic version of the over reliance of most professional historians on writing historical facts in the medium of English rather than the vernacular language, and it is clear that the Amharic version has been in greater demand in Ethiopia than the English version there is in short a wide.57 Furthermore, Desta Bekele explained that, for a long time, the most common teaching strategy used by history teachers was the lecture method, which is one of the methods specifically used for history teaching. Besides, he adds, research conducted around the teaching methods of history has also shown that the lecture method remains the basic form of instruction in which history courses are most commonly taught.58

In view of the fact that history discipline began in Ethiopia, teaching and learning content were mostly dominated by politics as one tool for ideology in the Imperial period, the Derg, and the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front regimes , respectively, ran their ideology through the education system. Forinstance, Toggia Pietro (2008) explained Ethiopian history reserves a privileged site for successive states as an incontestable domain of knowledge, truth, legitimacy, and national identity. The production and dissemination of past knowledge as history was systematized, especially under Emperor HaileSelassie’s I government, with the extensive publication of history textbooks for all grades and higher education. Historians in Ethiopia have also been strategically selective in reflecting on the history of the militarily and politically dominant groups.59 Moreover, Teshome justified history education during Emperor's Haile Selassie I, in which the deeds of the kings and their masters were glorified. Writers and teachers were either foreigners or priests who seemed to sing the praise of the kings of the king.60 During the Derg era, history teaching emphasized the value of emphasizing socialist ideas, At that time, history was seen as the most important tool for instilling national awareness in the youth.61After with the fall of the Derg government, the central power shifted to aTigrean-dominated political organization.This resulted in the displacement of the unitary state by ethnic federalism. Indue process, most history lessons are based on ethnicity, and the current heated debate on Ethiopian history among Ethiopian scholars and political activists has no parallel. The intensity of th ecurrent debate is being generated and magnified.62

Furthermore, according to my informant Ato Tesfaw zegeye and Ato Destaw Memhru, the problem with current teaching history is that the quality of schooling appears to be deteriorating as a result of over-enrolment policies country of 70% for natural science and 30% for social science students. For example, assume that students are inadequately educated in schools.They claim that the patriotic, nationalistic, and theoretical knowledge of students is inadequate. The majority of students after finishing grade 10, students in senior secondary schools are no longer required to take history courses. There are two streams natural science and social science. Only a small percentage of students choose to pursue a career in social science. As a result, the majority of students graduate from a senior secondary school with little historical understanding63

The teaching of history in schools cannot besaid to be without problems and challenges. My informants, Nigusie Desta and Tadese Fiseha highlight several factors that affect the teaching and learning of history. The first mentioned history teaching insome Ethiopian secondary schools revealed that the most serious problem in history teaching as the majority was a lack of essential teaching aids. Secondly, other problems revealed by the study were the absence of well-equipped libraries or history rooms, the high number of students in the classes, inadequate motivation of teachers, and students’ low standard of written English. Lastly, they stated that instructional resources were not frequently used in history lessons because they were either not available at all or were inadequate. Moreover, the number of periods allocated for history in the school timetable was found to be inadequate for the entire syllabus to be covered. Students were also found to possess negative perceptions about the subject as they regarded history a compendium of facts to be memorized.64 Furthermore, informants,Teferi Asfaw andYengus Zenbe clarified that some students have misconceptions about history. They assume history is just a study about dead people, and since history studies the past, students think it is an irrelevant subject.65

6. Major Perspectives of Historical Writing on Ethiopia's History

Following a successful professional career in Ethiopia, professional historians and writers teach, conduct research, and give meaning to the sources' materials from different points of view.66The main factors for the foresight of various features in the construction of Ethiopian history and writing, according to Clapham (2002), are Ethiopia itself has changed dramatically in recent decades, from the decline and fall of the old imperial system, to the massive upheavals of the early years of the revolution, the attempt to construct a Marxist-Leninist state, the growth of regional resistance movements, and most recently, the independence of Eritrea and the emergence of regional resistance movements.67 While I engaged in research for a major perspective on historical writing in Ethiopian historiography, I got five perspectives, these historians' perspectives are Imperial, liberal, Marxist, Ethno-nationalist, and peripheral. Due to the presence of different perspectives, this also adds another problem when studying Ethiopian historiography. So one history teacher, when able to teach and write about Ethiopian history effectively, must know those paradigms.

The first dominant major paradigm of historical writing on Ethiopian history was the Imperial perspective/ uni-centeric/larger and wider perspective, which occupied the longest air space in Ethiopian historiography. Its emphasis on the story and chronology of the Ethiopian government earlier in the twentieth century was because the earlier royal scribes were invariably clerics of the Ethiopian Tewahdo Christian Orthodox Church.68Common characteristics perspective of History-writing in the Christian highlands have always been concerned with big men and occasionally women, whether rulers or religious figures. This top-down approach became trade mark in the 1950s and 1960 seven more state-centric with a heavy emphasis on politics and political matters.69 From what we assessed from my reading, we concluded that most Imperial historiography was produced in Amharic, although some were translated into foreign languages. It lacked methodology for writing. Repeat similar stories, except for some details. The government covered the expense of printing. Forinstance, ሕይወቴና የኢትዮጵያ እርምጃ (My life and progress of Ethiopia) wrote by Emperor Haileselassie I is still the only Ethiopian ruler who wrote his own autobiography in Amharic in 1973,70 ዝክረ ነገር (A Resedy ), in 1942 was written by the Mahtemeselassie Woldemeskel . It is a book that has been published. It is a historically important book that records the economic, social, and political activities of the Ethiopian peopleas a whole.71This historical writing paradigm is bases of the work of liberal or professional historians in Ethiopia.

The second major historical writing on Ethiopia's history was liberal or professional historiographers. As the most distinguished professor, Baharu, explained, the focus and scope of history accordingly changed during the1950s and 1960s, from politics to culture, and from what is known as "meta-history" to the grand historical narrative, or even the philosophy of history) to "micro history" (the lives of commoners in localized settings).72 Furthermore, the basis of professional or liberal historians is universities, and they consider their work objective, factual, acceptable, and not biased. Liberals became the governing idea in modern education. They were engaged in full-time historical training and investigation.73 However, professionals and liberals had problems of borrowing ideas from western oriented like words, modernization, serfdom, feudalism. Moreover, focus on the relationship between foreign concepts and internal achievements.74

The third perspective on the writing of Ethiopian history was Marxist or radical perspective. This lasted from 1974-1991. History writing during the Derg regime was totally built on radical or Marxist perspectives. Marxist interpretation and writing of history became the grand hall mark of the Derg era.75 In addition to the above, writing, Ethiopian historiography reluctantly follows the call to pay more attention to the history of the broad masses, class relations, oppressive structures, and soon, including attention to historical conquest and violent processes. Secondary senior school student textbooks, however, underwent a more rapid turn towards a new non-imperial, non- religious, and class-oriented perspective on Ethiopia and its peoples.76 In Ethiopia, few scholars like Addis Hiwotbook called Ethiopia from Autocracy to Revolution published 1975 applied Marxist perspective.77

The fourth paradigm of writing Ethiopian history was set up by Ethno-nationalists, particularly the Ethno-national liberation movements in Eritrea's north and Oromo's south, who demanded political independence from the central Ethiopian state in the early 1970s. These political movements supported their demands for self-determination by claiming that Ethiopia was a colonial state with a history of less than a century. As a result, ethno-nationalist scholars and historians of Eritrean and Oromo descent began to refute Ethiopia's long history and unity. Similarly, Eritrean ethno nationalists dispute historical claims that the current Ethiopian states are direct descendents of the Axumite Empire. Similarly, Oromo ethno nationalist scholars and activists still struggle for independence and claim they are "colonized" by Amharas as they have been in the last hundred years. They argue that, ‘the history of Ethiopia as it has been written by Ethiopianists up to the present has been written from a perspective which does not include the background to what is going on in the empire now78 Moreover Ethno-nationalist perspective groups from North and south respectively emphasize on politics and their main argument the colonial view of Ethiopia. 79

The last writing of Ethiopian history perspective set-up on the peripheral paradigm, particularly most minority groups are located at the periphery of Ethiopia’s power structure, and official history books are reserved about their marginalized historical experiences under the dominance of the central state. Nonetheless, silence has been a mode of power exercised by the ruling group to exclude apparently with a representative national image. The marginalized groups a reviewed themselves as less studied societies, whose believes dragger (peripheral) existence has known no representation at the centre. These include minority ethnic groups such as the Maale, Dassanetch, Gumuz, Kwegu, Mursi, Gedeo, and Maji, among other people of southern and south western Ethiopia.80

7. Conducive environment and impediments to writing a true Ethiopian history

Briefly, when we see a distinctive feature of Ethiopia's history-writing development, compared with the rest of Africa'shad unique and long-standing indigenous traditional historical writing,81 Below I will discuss the source documentation, approach to writing, and major participants in historical writing whose contributions to the development of the historiography of Ethiopia who helped to create a conducive environment. On the other hand, I am curious to investigate the major factors impeding on writing a comprehensive Ethiopian history.

The ancient tradition of documentation of historicalsources was most probably as old as state formation in Ethiopia. There has been a historical account of Egyptian hieroglyphics which indicates the relationship between the anonymous state of Punt and the Ancient Egyptian, Hatshepsut (ca.1490-1468 BC). Most of the historical information about the ancient punts that existed in the Horn of Africa came from the ancient Egyptian writing system called Hieroglyphics, which shows religion, animals, commercial items, deities, and plants. Hieroglyphics also explainthat ancient state punts and Egyptians exchanged trading items like incense, ivory, gold, and black wood.82 In pre-Aksumite, states, like historical accounts like inscriptions and archeological remains were some of the early documentation on Ethiopian historiography.83Ancient Ethiopians used languages like Ge'ez, Sabean, and Greek. Their written traditions have made tremendous contributions to ancient Ethiopia. The history of Ancient Ethiopia was clearly mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean-sea in the 1st century AD, which was produced as a result of the commercial relations with the Greeco-Roman world.The document further explained that the Ancient Aksumite state was an organized state.

The other document written by Cosmosindicopltueswas Christian Topography. This document explains the territorial expansion of the ancient Aksumite state towards North, West, and South Arabia. The Ancient Aksumite state contributed to the civilization of Ethiopia through such things as the monumental steal, the obelisk, and produced coins, epigraphs, and inscribed stones.84 Third and fourth centuries A.D., we find a variety of writing materials such as metal, clay, and probably wood, besides those manufactured for soft writing. In particular, vellum started to become an uncontestable writing medium almost one thousand five hundred years ago, until the 19th  century.85

Since the introduction of Christianity by King Ezana in 330AD, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has played an ancient, historical, national, and apostil role. In this span of its long history, this distinguished church has registered several deeds of civilization such as developing the Ethiopian alphabet for reading and writing, having its own history of writing, traditional church school, fine arts, works of art, numbers, having its own calendar system with sets of days, weeks, months, years and eras, using a unique language called Geez for church service and writing chronicles of successive Ethiopian kings, and lastly, having a liturgy style with its own peculiar notesfor church song developedby Saint Yared, 86 in linewith the advent of ninesaints fromSyria During the 5th century, they worked immensely. First, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church enjoyed the translation of spiritual books from Greek to Geez, the establishment of different churches, and the formation of strong monasteries.87

After the Aksumite civilization crumbled, there was a continuation of civilization seen during the Zagwe dynasty. During the period between 1150 and 1270 AD, historical source documentation was placed on hagiography, royal chronicles written in the Geez language, and curv in gan architecture with paintings of monolithic churches. In Lalibela town had eleven rock-hewn churches, all of those monolithic churches decorated with mysterious painting styles.88

In the Medieval Period, abundant literature on Ethiopian history was found. The earliest Ethiopian material was a manuscript. Some of the manuscripts are the largest group of sources available for medieval Ethiopian historic hagiographies /Gedel originating from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Invariably written in Ge'ez, the important function of hagiographies is to enhance the prestige of saints and biographical characters.89 Yet, we don’t have the oldest Ethiopian Manuscript. The oldest known manuscript belongs to the 13th century. Because there has been no tentative study made on Ethiopian manuscripts and we don’t have an inventory of them. In other words, the climatic and political conditions of the country must also be considered. The climatic condition of the highlands of Ethiopia is very wet, which makes the preservation of manuscripts for long periods impossible. Furthermore, the history of Ethiopia in the medieval period is more or less a history of war, especially the incursion of Ahmed Gragn in the 16thcentury, which led to the devastation of many Ethiopian Orthodox churches and the preservation of their cultural heritage.90

There have been two types of historical writing traditions since the 14th century developed. These were chronicles covering the reign of individual kings and the records of a longer time spans called Tarika Nagast (history of Kings).91 Chronicles are important historical records because of their accuracy and chronological structure. Some chronicles are based on the chronicler's personal knowledge, while others are based on witnesses or participants in events like as battles, environmental issues, Emperors' lives, and eras, and agreements.92 In addition to this, Professor Baharu makes clear that Chronicles lack objectivity and show cons. The first chronicle are political and religious biases, which tend to explain predilections for supernatural reasons. Second, defaming the enemy side, third, emphasize and exaggerate the deeds of kings, do not refer to other sections of society, and lastly, in-accessibility, written in the Ge’ez language.93 Another medieval document that is said to have been first written in Coptic and translated into Arab was Kebra Nagast (the Glory of Kings). It was considered a divinely inspired document that helped to legitimize the Ethiopian royal family. It was adopted and translated into the Geez language to justify the legitimacy of Ethiopian kings of the Solomonic line in the 14thcentury. 94What is more, in the middle age of Ethiopian history, the source documentation and major participants in the historical writings of Ethiopia were the accounts of Arabic-speaking visitors, for example. Ibn Hawqal, al-Mas'udl, al-Idrls, al-'Umari, Ibn Battuta, Ibn Khaldun, Qalqashand, and al-MaqrizI, wrote and described the culture, language, and import-export trade in the main central region of the north and east African coast in the tenth and fourteenth centuries, respectively. Shihab al-Dinwrote a document titled "Futuh al Habasha". They recorded the conflict between the Christian kingdom and the Muslim principalities in the sixteenth century. 95

From the sixteenth through the late nineteenth centuries, European travelers and missionaries recordedsomehelpfulinformationforthestudy and writings of Ethiopian history. Like,  A Narrative of the Portuguese, Embassy to [Ethiopia] during the years 1520-1527 by Francisco Alvarez, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (1768) by James Bruce, and some of Jesuit missionaries came to Ethiopia.96 Most travelers' accounts are written in narrative form, describing what they saw and heard. More over the contribution of Job, Ludolf founded Ethiopian studies as discipline was set up in Europe in the 17thcentury. August, Dillman is the founder of Ethiopian studies in Europe by publishing two serious studies of ancient Ethiopia in Germany. Besides French men, Antoine de’ Abbadie worked mainly in the fields of history, geography, language, and natural science.97We have to be careful when using travelers’ and missionaries' accounts as a source to reconstruct past Ethiopian history, as Professor Mesefin Woldemariam advised. Ethiopia's history began to deteriorate when the main Ethiopian historians and educators were foreigners. Considered to have adopted not only our past but also our present and future generations, this is because these foreign writers do not know our history and culture very well.98 With the advent of indigenous historical writers and the contribution of traditional Ethiopian writers in the 19th century, such as Atseme Giorgis, Aleqa Taye Gebremariam, Gebrehiwot Baykedagn, and Blatta Geta Hiruy woldeslasie.99

8. Writing a History Syllabus and Its Organization

The history syllabus provides students with opportunities for self- and meaningful understanding, proper conception of time, space, and society, handling controversial issues, and developing national and international understanding.100 Syllabus design is based essentially on a decision about the chapters of the classroom activity, and the sequence in which they are to be performed. The syllabus thus formalizes the content to be learned in a domain of knowledge or behavior, and arranges this content in a succession of interim objectives.101

Table 1. Shows the post-liberation period major countries that have influenced Ethiopia's educational system since 1941

Source: SeyoumTefera's 1996 work was reviewed by the Ministry of Education.

As shown in the above table, since 1941, the curriculum, structure, and text books used were those of the East African British colonies. The second phase of development began with American assistance and continued after 1974. Since 1974, the third phase has emerged from the breaking revolution and an attempt was made to establish a socialist education system; a curriculum was developed and textbooks prepared to this effect.102 The development of curriculum in history is a complex and intricate process. In 1958, a drafting committee was established to prepare curriculum guides to Ethiopianize the entire curriculum, assuming that, the school program and imported student text books were not adapted to national needs and that the usage of English language in the early guides was completely unsound.103 Efforts to produce a national curricula and to expand primary education were relatively made.104Although since the first organized history curriculum and syllabus began the process in 1957, Ethiopian has mainly been done by a committee of curriculum specialists.105

While educational experts take part in curriculum design concerned with the nature and arrangement of the four basic parts, objectives, content, learning experiences, and evaluation. 106.When we see the major components of the syllabus and its organization, first the educational experience puts the objectives or learning goals expected from students, and then proceeds to the selection and organization of content with careful attention, and lastly, proceeds to the methodology and suggested activities or set assessment techniques.107Among the four major approaches to syllabus organization and design, from the Imperial regime until the present time, Ethiopia followed a chronological approach.108 As Turan (2020) defines a chronological approach, it spreads the whole course of history over the entire period of school instruction. Contents are taught in achronological sequence, year by year. In other words, the whole course of history is divided into certain marked stages called periods which have to be taught in chronological order.109

Abebe Fiseha puts it in anutshell, Ethiopian history, forinstance, canbe divided into three periods: ancient, medieval, and modern. Accordingly, topics were selected from Ethiopian, World, and Africa's history and organized under three sections. As a form of organization, a chronological approach was used. The syllabus organized itself around the principle of per-iodization. From grade nine through grade twelve, students were required to learn about ancient history, then medieval and then modern history. The course content of each graduate was organized under three headings.110 In general, whendesigning asyllabus, educators must first considerthe philosophy of the nation, the second and ability of the learner, the third material, and finally the teachers' resources.111

9. Constraints and Challenges in the Development of History Syllabus Selection and organization of the content of the history syllabus remain perennial problems for those who are concerned with the construction of the syllabus, especially subject experts’ debates on the selection of content, because it demands the highest skills and selected content should fit the desired skills, as the syllabus designer wanted, as in the above mentioned. Ethiopia follows the chronological approach to syllabus organization,112 strict adherence to chronology breaksup a topic into too many fragments and makes it difficult to understand. If history is divided into periods, then it may happen that one period maybe simple and the other maybe very complex.Taking them chronologically, it is just possible that we may take the complex first and the simple later, which would be a serious violation of the teaching maxim "simple to complex". Besides, since history is not repeated under this arrangement, students are likely to forget aperiod which was studied at an earlier stage.113Generally, Chronological order, or historical time, has been criticized by some researchers. Children’s perception of chronological order or historical time does not develop from sequential information but by comparing people, events, and periods with specific reference points.114 In sum, the content, organization, and writing of student text books show a big gap. For instance, the history syllabus of Ethiopian secondary schools' writing and content organization did not largely treat the history of our country during the imperial era. Based on the western orientation, the history syllabus of secondary schools tends to have an Euro-centric character.115 During the history textbook used by the Derg government to teach Ethiopian history, didnotmentionteachingstrategies, did not list for each content area student activities, and borrowed words from feudo-bourgeois and Feudal empire states. The authors of the book simply wrote chronological notes and concepts.116 In the same vain,Tekeste Negashhas to say, "The history curriculum pays too little attention to Ethiopia and Ethiopian worldview. The curriculum pays more attention to European and American history than the curriculum of any developed state. It would be naïve indeed to try to explain the little attention devoted to Ethiopian and African history on the grounds of proletarian internationalism."117

Furthermore, if the chronological order was not set in an organized way by conjoining the relationships between facts and events, students would not be able to understand in an easymanner. When I take the best example of content organization in a student text to teach modern history in1855-1916, we compare and contrast the Derg regime with the current text, which is shown in the table below. Current student text for each unit has an introduction, part, objectives of content, key concepts and activities, and review questions. Yet, Derg government student texts don’t have the above components