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PRINCE MEKONNEN HAILE SELLASIE SECONDARY SCHOOL
Located on the way to Harar on the right side the of the road and school
is now known by the name of Dire Dawa Comprehensive Secondary School.
This School has been a hope for the Dire Dawa people for over 40 years
and still is.
It gives a great service for the people of Dire Dawa.
The School started in 1963. Prior to this, there was no High school for
the children of Dire Dawa, except two elementary schools; Prince
Mekonnen elementary school and Christos elementary and junior high
school,i.e.only from grade 1-8. After completing elementary school
education, students were obligated to go to the city of Harar 55Km away
from Dire Dawa to High school called Medhanialm Secondary School.
This was difficult for students, parents, as well as the government that
spent 20 Birr Per month on transporting these students back and forth
from dire dawa to harar. Parents used to worry about the possibilities
of car accident, unreliable busses and may be inexperienced drivers, not
to mention the how treacherous the roads are despite they are paved.
There were two busses called KORARA 1 And Telfo bakisa 2. I believe
these busses were the ones assigned to transport the students, but we
don't know the origin of their names.
There is no record at least in our hand, for how long this went on. But
in 1963 miracle happened in dire dawa city. The first and still the only
public high school opened in dire dawa. That created a huge celebration
among the people of dire dawa, young and old.
As we all know the 1960s were the time of political stress around the
world and dire dawa also had its fare share. Schools, Stadiums and
Hospitals were taking names of political leaders.
First the school took the name of a prince, PRINCE MEKONNEN HAILE
SELLASIE SOCONDARY SCHOOL, THEN CHANGED TO MERHA MUYA THEN BACK TO
MEKONNEN, AND FINALLY TO ITS CURRENT NAME, DIRE DAWA COMPREHENSIVE
SECONDARY SCHOOL.
The school s program used to be pretty much compatible with the rest of
the world academic programs. As I recall, any student who completed his
or her high school education here and got a passing point on his/her
ESLCE(Ethiopian school leaving certificate exam), is qualified to enter
any college or university around the world, with a highest probability
of success on his or her studies. Now that was a great success in
school’s achievement and also a tremendous hope for parents and
students future life and prospect.
This shows that people of dire dawa new good education can make your
future brighter and still do.
The current academic program is a beat different than it used to be and
students in most cases are not meeting the challenges of current
technology and life itself. To bridge this gap former students of this
school and the dire dawa residents donated computers and other hardware
and software materials to the school. But the school’s problem is
far from over, so dire dawa high school alumni should be encouraged to
help in anyway they can. Letting the school down is letting your
heritage go down to the drain.
For those who started helping, the school is extending its appreciation
and we all say thank you.
The place of the school before 40 years
The school ground belonged to the Italian army and established in 1936.
The Italian army reached dire dawa on may 9, 1936. And of course after
the defeat of Italian Army, the school ground served as a police camp
for the dire dawa police department for the next 25 years.
How the School is Started???
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To Build the School, the contract was given to Engineer Philipe Masha, a
building contractor. The foundation started in 1960 with an estimated
cost of half a million birr. It took three years to finish the project
and when the building was completed, it had four stories with 31
classes, 1 lab, and 1 library.
Classes started from Grade 7- 9 had 5 sections but grade 10 had only one
section. The total number of students was 618, which had 542 males and
76 females.
The teaching staff had 20 members. According to the article in the
magazine published for the school’s 25th anniversary, 13 of those
were from other countries. The school had one management personnel, one
store leader, one secretary, one typist, two maids, and 4 security
guards.
To get the list of the teachers and the directors of the school starting
form
1963 please contact us by our e-mail address
Contact the Webmaster for more detail about the School
bini4u@gmail.com
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