Even the most ardent critics of the Revolutionary Democrats are disarmed when it comes to their credentials in building the nation's infrastructure. From expansions in road networks to electrifying thousands of towns; from building airports to developments of tens of thousands of housing units; and from establishing over a dozen brand new universities to the erections of mega irrigation dams, infrastructure is a forte to the ruling party.

The same is true in the expansion of education, at all levels, of course. Over 15 million children were in elementary schools in 2007, showing an impressively high growth from 1.5 million in the early 1990s, according to a macroeconomic handbook released by Access Capital, a private investment firm in Addis Abeba. This increase is consistent with registered enrolment in secondary schools; student numbers surged from 400,000 in 1991/92 to over 1.5 million in 2008, and from a scanty student population of 2,506 in technical and vocational education and training in the early 1990s to 73,969 in 2007.

The growth in enrolment for tertiary education has been simply extraordinary: the little less than 18,000 students that were studying at a handful of universities and colleges scattered across the country in 1990/91 increased tenfolds in 2007, according to Access Capital. This should not come as a surprise for a government whose resolve is to overcome poverty. Developing human capital is thus a natural consequence of this policy.

Writes Milton Friedman in his book, Capitalism and Freedom: "A stable and democratic society is impossible without a minimum degree of literacy and knowledge on the part of the citizens and without widespread acceptance of some common set of values. Education can contribute to both."

Simply put, for citizens to have value in the labour market, they should have the experience, training and education relevant to the labour market.

This government has not limited resources in its drive to expand the education sector. Indeed, it has adopted a no holds barred approach that has seen it spend hundreds of millions of Birr in its social programme to finance this growth. Interestingly, public spending in education, representing close to 20pc of total expenditure, had been higher than what was allocated to health (4.8pc), agriculture (16pc) and roads (16.6pc) in 2004/05.

These were the sort of investments in education that led to the building of over 2,000 secondary schools and 13 brand new universities in the past 10 years. Nevertheless, this development is not without flaws.

The manner in which the contracts handed out to the German consultancy firm, GTZ, which sub-contracted an indigenous architectural firm, created discontent within the construction industry. Many had reservations about the wisdom of federal authorities handpicking GTZ to bag the projects worth hundreds of millions of Birr.

It appears now the authorities have learnt their lessons this time around. Unlike in the past, they have floated public tenders inviting domestic companies to a competitive bidding process in order to design the structures, and supervise construction of 10 more universities the Federal Government would like to see built in various towns. Notably, no single firm will be allowed to bag the contract for the construction of more than two universities.

The rush into building university structures has had its own downside. The rapid expansion of all levels of education has not been without a price. Focus on quantity, with no corresponding emphasis to quality does have a price as can be seen in the setbacks in the quality of both the construction of the facilities and in skills acquired as investment per student declines.

Many of the newly built university campuses received students even though they were hardly ready to accommodate them. School facilities in forms of dormitories, feeding centres, recreational areas, if not deservedly well organized libraries, were glaringly inadequate. These setbacks stretch into the staffing of these institutes of higher learning as reflected in the limited numbers of qualified administrative staff and experienced academic personnel.

The government really should, perhaps, go back to the drawing board to ensure a more equitable distribution of resources to cater not only for expansion in the quantity of these institutions, but also for the maintenance or upgrading of the quality of the education given to the increasing number of students that will be churned out.

Quality is an unavoidable collateral damage during mass education. The problem is overwhelmingly depressing; the ruling party's convention held in Awassa last year had dedicated a good deal of its time to talking about how to introduce quality control in the sector. It is time those words were put into action so that alongside all the infrastructural development, there is the development of the manpower and educational resources needed to ensure quality education.

A study conducted by the World Bank reveals that this ensuring of quality will remain a major challenge when the government concludes its third education sector development programme next year.   

Policymakers in education should step in to help overcome this obstacle and avoid their earlier mistakes. Putting up the infrastructure, in the absence of proper planning, adequate supporting facilities and manpower before launching the academic year, would simply translate to no more than just a political gesture to the towns where these universities are supposed to be built.

It is indeed true that students' enrolment ratio in Ethiopia, where the total literacy is 22pc, according to a USAID figure, is one of the lowest even by the stretch of least developed nations, so it may not be wise to argue that the state should stop public spending in education infrastructure.

But there are fundamentally two problems to this: Added to the many infrastructure projects being undertaken and financed from the public coffers, it is inevitable that such spending contributes to the inflationary pressure on the economy and the stress on the budget. But more significantly, students emerging as graduates from these universities as hastily as they entered them will surely be half-baked.

Yes, they would hold certificates, but will they necessarily have the level of confidence necessary to demonstrate their acquired wisdom?

It would make a lot more sense for the government to focus on refining things within the universities that are already in place. There is so much that needs good fixing before it overstretches its energy and public resources. Luring in the private sector to invest in higher education in regional towns could go a long way in helping it  fulfil its desire to see the further expansion in this sector.

Indeed, the private sector may not have the capability to mobilize resources from domestic sources. However, it is not entirely difficult. It could simply be a matter of repeating the success story seen in the horticulture sector, where the government's policy drive created a non-existent sector. Provided that the private sector is granted access to finance, availability of land at a nominal cost, and complete exemption from paying all forms of taxes, many businesses would not hesitate to grab the opportunity as they were clever enough to do with the cut flower sector.

The state will do a lot more for the education sector if its agents in the executive branch dedicate their energy to the advocacy and enforcement of quality education. Introducing a set of standards and regulating educational institutions to observe them, including government ones, ought to be a kind of job within the legitimate role of the state.