Geography entrance exam, 2014 E.C. (2022)

Most Ethiopians live in rural areas and depend on farmland, grazing land and firewood.

When the population grows fast, forests are cleared for new fields, for fuel wood and for building material, so deforestation spreads over the whole country.

Massive air pollution is not the strongest answer because it is felt only around a few large towns and factories, not nationwide.

Textbook: Geography Grade 9, Unit 4 Population and Demographic Characteristics of Ethiopia, section 4.7 (page 113).

The Ethiopian population policy works by widening access to family planning and reproductive health services, and young people are its main target group.

Youth reproductive health counselling centres serve that goal directly, so this is the message you would expect.

Promoting a men focused strategy is wrong because the policy is built on raising the education and decision making power of women and girls.

Textbook: Geography Grade 12, Unit 4 Population Policies, Programs and the Environment, section 4.2 (page 100).

In the 2007 census only about 10 percent of the people of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples region lived in towns, the smallest urban share of any regional state.

Tigray is the tempting wrong answer, but nearly a fifth of its people are urban, which is well above the national average.

Note that a large total population does not make a region urban: SNNP is populous yet overwhelmingly rural.

Textbook: Geography Grade 9, Unit 4 Population and Demographic Characteristics of Ethiopia, section 4.5 (page 106).

Primary and secondary school enrolment expanded quickly after the early 1990s, so the share of adults who cannot read has fallen year after year.

The other three statements overstate the situation. Ethiopia is still a low income country, most rural households have no electricity, and safe water does not yet reach the majority.

Ethiopia holds large areas of farmland, big rivers, minerals, forests and a wide range of agro climates. These are the raw materials that future growth can be built on.

Rapid population growth is the tempting answer because it gives a large labour force, but at the present income level it presses on land, schools and jobs, so it is a challenge rather than a promise.

Textbook: Geography Grade 9, Unit 3 Natural Resource Base of Ethiopia, section 3.1 (page 60).

PASDEP aimed to speed up growth all over the country, and each option names a real barrier it met.

Roads and other infrastructure reached only part of the rural population, trained manpower was in short supply, and the very varied physical and agro climatic conditions meant one uniform package could not fit every area.

Since all three limited delivery, the correct choice is the one that accepts them together.