Introduction: - Maternal mortality in Ethiopia is one of the highest in the world.rnSurveys conducted on issue related to abortion and unwanted pregnancyrnsuggests that the magnitude of unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion arernamong the main cause of maternal mortality in Ethiopia. Emergencyrnrn rn rncontraceptive can serve as back up method to reduce the occurrence of unrnwanted pregnancy and its out come following un protected sex.rnObjectives: -To assess level of awareness, attitude and utilization of emergencyrncontraceptives and factor influencing knowledge, attitude and practice ofrnemergency contraceptive among preparatory & high school female students.rnMethods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted during April 2009. There wererna total of 3792 female students in one preparatory & two high schools ofrnDebrezeit town. Three hundred eighty four of them were sampled for the studyrnwith response rate of 91.1% . Self administered questionnaire was used to collectrndatarnResult: The magnitude of unwanted pregnancy for those who practiced sex wasrn33.3%. Among all respondents 213(60.9%) had knowledge about emergencyrncontraception; Correct timing of emergency contraception was reported by 149rn(70%) and only 25 (7.1%) of them had ever used emergency contraception. Oralrncontraceptive pill was the most widely used 24(96%). About one third 111 (31.7%)rnhad this information from School education. Two hundred (77.1%) of thernrespondents had good attitude towards the use of emergency contraception.rnKnowledge of emergency contraceptive was significantly higher of those in higher classrnOR =3.4(95% CI 1.58 -7.51).rnConclusion: even though there is a favorable number of knowledge on ECs byrnrespondents, utilization of emergency is un satisfactory. Hence Youth friendlyrnservice should be strengthened as they are considered a major contributor onrnpracticing modern contraception including EC, also by considering the importance ofrnprevention of STD and HIV/AIDS.