OP-ED Opinion

Competency Tests for Every Civil Servant? Marvellous. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Posted on: 2025-11-23 04:44:08 | Last updated: 2025-11-30 22:58:37

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At long last, Ethiopia has discovered the magical solution to public-sector inefficiency: exams. Yes, the same tool students dread, the same ritual that terrifies high-schoolers and university freshmen, will now be the miracle cure for the country’s sprawling bureaucracy. One can almost hear the collective groan rising from government offices across the nation.

According to the new proclamation, every civil servant, from federal ministries to the tiniest district office, will sit for mandatory competency tests. Apparently, the assumption is simple: once confronted with a multiple-choice question, decades of structural inefficiency, outdated processes and organisational dysfunction will vanish instantly. Brilliant.

Of course, the government insists that this is all about “improving efficiency” and “ensuring professionalism.” Admirable goals, certainly. But one wonders: if the civil service has been inefficient for so long, who exactly allowed it to get that way? Did inefficiency sprout spontaneously from office furniture? Were typewriters overflowing with incompetence spores? Or is there perhaps a longer, deeper story of poor institutional culture that no test, no matter how carefully designed, can fix?

Let us imagine the scene. A long-serving civil servant, who has spent years navigating broken printers, power cuts, and a filing system last updated in the reign of Haile Selassie, now sits at a desk at eight in the morning. Before them: a “competency exam.” Around them: colleagues shifting nervously, supervisors pretending to be calm, and administrators praying the Wi-Fi doesn’t collapse. Again.

Meanwhile, institutions are scrambling to design “uniform evaluation tools” and “training support.” This is a polite way of saying: no one is entirely sure what the exam will contain, how it will be delivered or who will grade it, but preparations are under way. One cannot help but applaud the optimism.

Still, the idea of reassessing competence is appealing. Many citizens would welcome any intervention that gets government offices to deliver services without seven signatures, three stamps and a surprise lunch break. If an exam can motivate a few employees to actually show up on time, fantastic.

But let us be honest. Ethiopia’s public-sector challenges are not the result of one or two unprepared officers. They stem from systemic issues: limited digital infrastructure, slow administrative processes, chronic resource shortages and leadership gaps that no bubble sheet can repair.

And, of course, there’s the delicate matter of morale. Nothing boosts worker enthusiasm quite like the looming threat of being publicly declared incompetent by a test likely designed in haste. One imagines a future in which every office conversation ends with: “Have you studied?” Just the kind of cheerful, stress-free environment that nurtures productivity.

Yet the government is confident. And confidence, as we know, is half the battle. The other half, unfortunately, is implementation, a detail always trickier than drafting proclamations or delivering press statements.

Still, perhaps this will usher in a miraculous era. Perhaps offices will become paragons of efficiency overnight. Perhaps supervisors will discover unused talents. Perhaps donkeys will fly.

Until then, civil servants nationwide are sharpening pencils, reviewing training manuals and whispering prayers to every bureaucratic patron saint they know. Ethiopia is embarking on a grand experiment. The rest of us will watch closely, pen in hand, eyebrow raised, waiting to see whether competence can indeed be manufactured by exam paper.

At the very least, it will be entertaining.