Ethiopia, a country with 82 distinctly different languages and ethnic groups, has recently emerged from decades of civil war. In the process of restoring civilian rule, alliances have formed between a wide spectrum of local interest groups. Education generally, and language policy more specifically, continues to be one of the most contentious elements of the Ethiopian social and political scene. After enduring centuries of rule by Amharic speaking "Northerners," new regional authorities have elected to purge the Amharic language from the teaching curriculum, in favor of local languages for the primary years and English in the secondary schools. These reforms entail the translation and publication of massive quantities of textbooks, the redeployment of former staff and teaching resources, and the development of new regional and local educational authorities. This paper surveys data from an ongoing field research project, which included an examination of the Ethiopian Teachers' Training Institute. The school was located in Bale, where the Orominya language was adopted into the curriculum. This analysis explores the strength and appropriateness of the curriculum, identifies sources of both failure and innovation, and highlights many of the difficulties inherent in the imposition of major educational reform under severe resource constraints. (Author/LL)