Paper short abstract:

Inspired by post-development theories, I reflect on an era of post-schooling that looks beyond a modern/non-modern binary of education and suggests a combination of approaches that involves schooling and education in agro-pastoralist households to create sustainable futures.

Paper long abstract:

Schooling for all children has become a global good and providing access to schools is linked to ideas of development. However, while schooling campaigns promise a better life and a reduction of poverty, many school-educated youth in the global south experience unemployment. Among pastoralists in Ethiopia the school enrolment is lower than in other parts of the country and the government uses the promise of access to schools to justify their sedentarization. In Hamar District in southwest Ethiopia, the implementation of compulsory schooling has fuelled a violent conflict in 2014/15.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with pupils and students during the outbreak of the conflict, I analyse how they navigate the dilemmas of going to government schools. Education in agro-pastoralist households and in government schools teach children different life skills and knowledge, which prepare them for making a living by herding and agriculture or for becoming a civil servant. While many children drop out of school and only few reach these jobs, making a living with agro-pastoralism becomes increasingly insecure due to the changing environment.

Inspired by post-development theories, I reflect in this paper on an era of post-schooling which looks beyond a modern/non modern divide and rethinks education for pastoralists as neither only schooling nor non-schooling. Thinking with pastoralist households who are sending some children to school and educating some at home, I discuss challenges and suggest some pathways of children’s education and its future implications for households to create sustainable ways of education for people living in semi-arid environments.