The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitude of Ethiopian teachers towards the teaching profession in secondary schools. We used a questionnaire to collect data from 404 teachers, the results of which indicate that 62.6% of the teachers had a moderate positive attitude towards their profession. The cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses had a positive correlation with each other. The findings also indicate that gender, age, qualifications, and teaching experience did not affect the attitude of teachers. We suggest further study to examine whether the teachers have a different attitude elsewhere and the impact of policy initiatives on teachers' attitudes towards their profession. •Ethiopian teachers show a moderate positive attitude towards the teaching profession.•Planned policy initiatives and piecemeal interventions can bring attitudinal change.•The three attitudinal responses have positive strong correlations.•The paper gives insight into the Ethiopian system of education.•The Ethiopian modern education is not contextualized with the realities of the country.