College of education and behavorial study departement of educational planning and management assessing the practice of diversity management in

2.3.2 Religion diversity 
Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially 
when considered as the creation of a super human agency or agencies, usually involving 

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devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of 
human affairs (Tariku and Gara 2015).
In the matter of religion, Ethiopian people are divided into four basic groups; Chrlstlan, Muslim, 
Jewish and a variety of local religions. Although the Christian population represents the various 
denominations of Christianity, the over-whelming majority of them are the adherents of the 
Ethiopian (Coptic) Orthodox Church. Within the context of Ethiopian national history the two 
major religious groups, Christian and Muslim, have been the most important because of both 
their size and political roles. Christians and Muslims have been hostile to one another and there 
is good reason to believe that politics rather than religion are the cause of their mutual 
antagonism. 
As a country that has accepted Christianity, in its orthodox form, in the third century AD and 
practiced it as a state religion until 1974, Ethiopian is often portrayed as a Christian state. The 
description of Ethiopia as a Christian state could, however, be misleading as no less than half of 
the population is Muslims by faith. 
According to the 1994 population census, Orthodox Christians account for 50.6% of the 
population, followed by Protestants (10%) and Roman Catholics (0.9%). The Muslims constitute 
32.8% of the population (Central Statistics Authority 1994). It is estimated that the Muslim 
population has increased significantly and estimated to account for 40-45% of the population. 
As one of the most sensitive area of human life, religion has very pressing influence not only on 
education but also on all daily activities of our endeavor. In Ethiopian case where the society is 
so diverse and different, the policy is necessary and overdue to give full expression to the 
invocation of religion in the constitution and the principles governing religious freedom. In this 
regard, the 1994 Ethiopian education and Training policy dictates in Article 2.2.7 that school 
should provide secular education in the country as the constitution proclaims the separation of 
state and religion in Article 11 as: ―state and religion are separate, there shall be no state religion, 
the state shall not interfere in religious matters and religion shall not interfere in state affairs‖. It 
seems evident that in public schools where no particular religious ethos should be dominant over 

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and suppress others, the government ensures and protects the equal rights of all students to have 
their own religious views (Tariku and Gara 2015).
Besides, the 1995 constitution affirms that state and religion are separate, and there is no state 
religion. The constitution also declared that everyone has the right to freedom of religion, and 
believers can establish institutions of religious education and administration in order to propagate 
and organize their religion.