This study was conducted for investigating major ji/ctors that hindered primary educationrnenrol/ment of the pasloralisl children in East Showa zone. To this end, a descriptive surveyrnmethod was employed, Apart from consultation of documents from relevant sources, data wererngatheredFom 300 Kerayu students, 80 teachers, 6 educational officers ,8 pastoral members whorngot formal education, 4 tribal leaders who were selected by applying random sampling techniquernfor students and purposive sampling was used for teachers, educational officials and interviews.rnQuestionnaire and interview were instruments employed for data collection while, mean,rnpercentage, correlation and regression were used for analyzing the data. Based on the findingsrnFom data analysis socio-cultural and socio-economic constraints have been identified as majorrnconstraints. Furthermore, institutional factors like administratively inflexible school calendar,rnirrelevance of curriculum, low administrative capacity of educational officials were also found tornbe barriers to the educational participation of Kerayu and ftu pastoral children. D~pending onrnthe results of the findings, it was recommended that policy and strategy for pastoral childrenrneducation, flexible educational calendar, construction of boarding schools and hostels by invitingrnboth bilateral and multilateral non-governmental organizations, sustaining school feedingrnprogram and widening its provision. Moreover, encouraging non-formal education, promotingrnthe capacity bui/ding programs for educational officials and recruiting skilled educationalrnpersonnel to improve service delivery were recommended.