Abstract
In some societies every dispute turns into an ethnic dispute. Ethiopia is increasingly becoming one such society. The emotionally charged debate on the proposed roadmap on education is a recent example of an unfortunate situation where matters like education that could have been debated upon from different perspectives are only examined through the lens of ethnicity. Matters came to head last week when the Ministry of Education announced the so-called ‘education roadmap’ that is introducing a number of important changes to the existing education system. The proposal that raised the most dust is the suggestion that the federal working language, Amharic, should be taught as a subject beginning from Grade one throughout the country.