A Likert-type self report questionnaire meant to examine opportunities and challenges in practicing the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) program was pilot tested and administered to 300 randomly selected primary school teachers in Addis Ababa City Administration. Male tend to use self refl ection techniques more than female to improve their career development (t=3.85, p < 0.00). The mean score for teachers teaching at the second cycle was found to be statistically higher than the mean score of teachers working in the first cycle of primary education (t = 3.24, p < 0.00) indicating that teachers in the second cycle tend to use peer discussions, self-assessment of one's own daily routines, and use of portfolio more often than their counterparts teaching in the fi rst cycle. The mentoring process stood as the number one contributing factor for teachers' professional development (29.1%) followed by action research (28.8%) and school in-house workshops (27.8%). Lack of knowledge and experience on the theoretical underpinnings, implementation inconsistencies, lack of budget to run the program at school level, lack of incentive to recognize teachers who make utmost effortsto change themselves and their colleagues were major problems identifi ed from the qualitative data. Despite these problems, the new CPD has entailed a number of opportunities and useful experiences in terms of empowering school teachers and ameliorating school based problems related to the teaching learning process. Future implications are also suggested.