An Exploration into the Practice of Traditional Church Education in Ethiopia: Zema-bet Education in Focus

The main objective of this study was to explore the practice of traditional church education specifically Zema-Bet education in the three selected Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido churches found in Bahir Dar city. In doing so, a mixed-method research approach with the convergent parallel design was employed. To achieve the purpose of the study, all the three churches of Zema-Bet education teachers, 90 learners, and three leaders were included in the study by using comprehensive, simple random, and purposive sampling techniques, respectively. An open-ended questionnaire, observation, semi-structured interview, and document analysis were employed for data collection. The collected data were analyzed via descriptive analysis technique and data driven word-by-word thematic narrations. The obtained results confirmed that Zema-Bet education learners usually learn by themselves, and sometimes through peer-led groups under the tree shade. The findings further revealed that some of the principles of adult learning (like practical oriented, motivation to learn, self-directed learning, etc.) are applied in Zema-Bet education. Based on the findings, it is recommended that the government should build a teaching-learning center like what has been done in modern education to resolve the absence of well-furnished buildings and teaching-learning places. Moreover, the government, private agencies, and non-government organizations should support Zema-Bet learners by funding and providing learning materials. Attendant offices of the ministry of education should give attention and recognize traditional church education as one basic education modality and center for adult learning.