The general objective of this research was to examine the cultural elements among private and rngovernment primary school curriculum by considering two schools as cases. Qualitative content rnanalysis was used as a method to identifo the cultural contents in environmental science textbooks. rnThe environmental science textbooks from grades one to four from both government and private were rnpurposefully taken as data sources. It is because environmental science is expected to incorporate rncultural issues in first cycle primary school level. In relation to this, the study also examined the rnimplementation of medium of instruction and the role of co-curricular activities in both government rnand private primary schools for the promotion of culture to enrich the curriculum outside the rnclassroom. In addition to content analysis, students, teachers and school principals in government rnand private schools and curriculum experts of AAEB reflected their knowledge through interview and rnFGD. rnThe major results of this study revealed that the government environmental science textbooks from rngrades one to four reflected cultural elements, i. e. the textbooks have included cultural values, rncultural materials, historical heritages and role models. But the grade-four textbook was not found rnfree from some factual errors and gender bias. When we come to the private environmental science rntextbooks, they do not include these cultural elements with the exception of grade four. Moreover, the rncollected data show that citizens of the same nation are currently made to learn curricula developed rnin two different languages (Amharic in government schools and English in private schools). A rndesirable curriculum should include co-curricular activities. The collected data show two categories rnof co-curricular activities: clubs and days of special celebrations. In both government and private rnschools the clubs have been organized based on the AAEB club manual guide. Even though these rnclubs have cultural elements, they did nothing practical in both schools. From days of special rncelebrations, the data indicate that the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Day is prominently and rncommonly celebrated in both schools. However, practices that are not within the national context rnsuch as color day, crazy day, water day, and twins' day are celebrated in private school only. But rnsuch practices were not observed in a government school. Thus, both social settings are not uniform rnin terms of contents, medium of instruction and the ways of promoting culture (with the exception of rnnations and nationalities day) outside the class. Based on the findings of the study recommendations rnhave been suggested.