Ethiopia said Wednesday it paid due attention to the education sector as it allocated 20 percent of the total annual federal budget for the sector.

Ethiopian Education Minister Sintayehu Wolde-michael told journalists that the regional states also allocated up to 40 percent of their annual budget for the same purpose.

"Ethiopia will realize the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to see all school-age children get access to quality primary education by the year 2015," Sintayehu said.

The MDGs, adopted in the millennium UN summit, include a series of concrete objectives in fighting poverty, reducing hunger, expanding primary education, and containing the spread of HIV/AIDS.

In 2006, primary school enrollment has reached 89.14 percent and secondary education has reached 30.9 percent, he said.

"Out of the total enrollment, the share of girls in primary, secondary and higher education has reached 44 percent, 37 percent and 25 percent respectively in the same period," said the Ethiopian minister.

Meanwhile, the ministry's public relations service said the ninth university in the country has already gone operational.

The number of universities will reach 25 in the next five years, it said.

Source: Xinhua