The Federal Minister of Education, Amhara Regional Head of Education, and Partners’ Director Gina Cosco recently cut the ribbon to open the new Jigna Primary School
Moving forward in 2022
Thanks to our many donors, partners and communities, Partners in Education Ethiopia received $1.4 million in donations and contributions last year, enabling us to continue our work even through challenging times, and to move forward with expanding programs, partnerships, and projects.
School Infrastructure
We are on schedule to open 4 new schools in 2022, bringing our total to 20. Our training workshops and follow-up classroom support, which introduce differentiated instruction to meet individual student needs, objective focused learning, unit planning and other essential learner- oriented practices, have already begun in our new schools, and continue in the existing ones.
Programs
Some of our teaching initiatives have received recognition beyond the local community level to the point where, as an example, one woreda/district education office has ordered green chalk boards similar to ours to be instituted in all of its schools. These paint-based blackboards extend the entire width of the wall so that numerous students are able to actively participate at the same time. We are very proud of this multiplier effect of our work. The pictures below show existing black boards in one of our schools and in a school that we will rebuild in 2022.
The gardening and greening programs are proving to be very successful with some schools now earning income from sales of the produce. Teachers are becoming engaged in using the gardens as educational tools, and some of the teachers and students are working on developing soap-based insecticides.
With the direct contributions of several donors, our special needs programs are flourishing in a number of our schools, as can be seen in the attached picture.
Other projects
Two of our high schools are now involved in interconnectivity projects; one of them in collaboration with the US based Internet Society and the other with the support of a BC based Compassionate Eye Foundation. These projects will bring power as well as the internet and web-based learning resources and training to the schools.
Preliminary feedback from our translanguaging research project, which is being conducted in cooperation with the University of London (Birkbeck), indicates that students and teachers are vastly increasing their skills in a much broader sense than just improving English language fluency. They report increased awareness and use of different learning resources such as magazines and social media, increased vocabulary, and enhancement of cooperative learning and relationships among peers and teachers.
We have established several new partnerships that are bringing health and sanitation related services and information to our schools and the communities surrounding them. Operation Eyesight also continues to be a critical partner to this end, along with two different hospitals and three different universities.
Moving forward
We are very proud that our very dedicated and empathetic staff and their friends have contributed to a fund from which they purchased and distributed wheat, school supplies, and books for the many thousand students who have been displaced from their homes in the northern region of Ethiopia due to the recent crisis there. These students have increased our total student body to over 30,000.
As can be seen in the blackboard picture and the classroom pictures below, the conditions in some existing schools in the region are still shockingly poor by our standards and there is no end of such schools, and therefore potential projects, in sight.
This has been an amazing year for Partners, filled with successes and challenges that would not have been possible without the help of our many supporters. We are increasingly gaining national as well as international recognition and support. We look forward to building more schools while focusing on new partnerships and programs to ensure that all children have access to quality education and dedicated teachers.
Directors' visit
David and I just returned from a very rewarding trip to Ethiopia. Our schools and programs have exceeded our wildest hopes and dreams in terms of achievement, creative and effective teaching methods, income generation from educational gardening programs, health programs, and widespread support. One of the schools (Debre Work) has gone from the Department of Education ranking of lowest of 63 schools in the district to highest in the 3 years that we have been involved. Our second- built school (Azena) is no longer included in the rankings in its district as it is so far above other schools in every regard that it is not considered to be comparable.
While we were cautious about COVID, it did not prevent us from partaking in any activities. The unrest in the Tigray region is a long way from our work, and again, had no effect on us.
We travelled with the Partners team to 11 of the schools, including our first school and three still under construction. It was incredible to see the enthusiasm of both students and teachers in the classrooms and the productivity of the gardens. We attended several meetings of community and school committee members, teachers, administration, and government officials and were awed by the level of cooperation and collaboration amongst them. They share a huge commitment to providing access to education for all, particularly girls, and to making that education of the highest quality.
We now have 17 schools, home to over 27,000 students and 750 teachers. Our team is up to 8 permanent and 2 part-time dedicated staff, several of whose salaries are funded by Operation Eyesight Universal and an Oxford University research grant. We hope to continue with our strategic plan of building 4 schools per year, however the combination of COVID and the war has resulted in rampant inflation, and given our resolve not to sacrifice quality for quantity, the number will depend on our ability to raise funds.
Thanks for your continuing support!
Gina
New partnership with STEMpower Inc
We are delighted to have entered a new partnership with STEMpower Inc. (https://www.stempower.org/).
STEMpower is an international, not for profit, non-governmental organization registered in USA and Ethiopia and operates in Sub-Saharan African countries, with a vision to reach the whole of Africa. It is founded on the conviction that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education, Innovation, Acceleration and Tech SMEs are crucial to Africa’s long-term development. STEMpower Inc. provides access to hands-on STEM education encouraging students and innovators to engineer their way out of poverty by strengthening their country’s technical workforce.
Partners in Education Ethiopia, in collaboration with STEMpower and Internet Society (ISOC), are working towards creating a pool of entrepreneurship and hub trainers who can cascade the knowledge and skills necessary in establishing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for aspiring innovators and entrepreneurs in the Amhara National Regional State (ANRS). Candidate trainers have been pulled from schools, Partners’ staff in Bahir Dar and four partner universities in ANRS .
News Update - May 2021
The past year has been intense and challenging, but we have made every effort to combat the COVID spread. As schools reopened, many students, especially from poor rural households, have not returned. Unfortunately, vulnerable children take the brunt of the pandemic, lacking access to food, water and supplies. Although closures were a temporary shift in schooling for children from well to do families, they resulted in no learning experiences for those in our operational areas. Our team of educators are making every effort to close the COVID loss and accelerate learning for all. As for the turmoil in the Tigray region, the floods, and the desert locust invasion in Ethiopia, we have not been affected, as our operations are all confined to the Amhara region.
Bezawit primary school
Our team continues to expertly navigate the day to day changing circumstances. With the tireless dedication of the communities and the support of various universities, governments, NGOs and other donors, we currently have three new schools under construction, to be opened in 2021. The schools’ fruit and vegetable gardens have become enormously successful, with fruits and vegetables producing income to several schools as well as providing students with a different form of experiential learning. Parents are becoming involved in their childrens’ education, and our special needs programs have opened up opportunities to many who would not otherwise have even attended school. Teachers are embracing our learner centred pedagogy and our schools have done very well in terms of both behaviour and achievement in regional assessments.
Sebatamit kids gardening
We are very proud that our schools and children are proving to be agents of change as community members adopt various aspects of our programs. Our teacher training workshops have expanded to include principals and supervisors so that our model will endure beyond the presence of Partners in Education Ethiopia.
We continue to expand and apply innovative new programs, while serving as leaders and looking ahead at what comes next. Watching the COVID virus spread throughout the world reinforces the necessity of our work beyond infrastructure, to enhance health, water, hygiene and sanitation programs, as well as to provide remote and hybrid learning opportunities. With your support, we have been able to start bringing these programs and opportunities to our schools.
Please see the projects page for more detailed information and update on various projects.
COVID-19 Response Effort
COVID-19 has had a wide ranging impact on Ethiopia. Schools closed on March 16, 2020, meaning that an estimated 26 million Ethiopian students have had no access to classes since then. Not only is the learning gap widening between children from educated and uneducated, well to do and poor, and rural and urban families, but also, the economic impact is resulting in a rise in domestic abuse and forced early marriages, among other things.
Our staff has been very active in the COVID-19 response effort, managing funds provided by Operation Eyesight Universal, ISEE, and Wilde Ganzen to procure PPEs, sanitizers, hand washing stations, and educational brochures, and distributing them to various hospitals, bus stations, and Mobile Health Teams. We have been so effective, the regional government has now asked us to help prepare guidelines for opening schools in late September.
April 2020 / COVID-19
As of April 28, 2020, 130 cases of COVID-19 and 3 deaths have been recorded in Ethiopia. However, in a population of 114 million, there have been fewer than 16,500 tests. In such a poor, densely populated country, the risk of spread is daunting. The government was very proactive early – all schools were shut down almost a month ago. Unfortunately, however, with the lack of electronic devices and internet, and the high adult illiteracy rate, the opportunity for students to learn at home is almost non-existent.
Our team has been working from home. Our partner, Operation Eyesight, has given us $50,000 to be used for the COVID-19 response effort in the region of our schools. Our staff has been able to procure masks, PPEs, hand-sanitizers, and wash stations, and organize their distribution to health-care workers and others in need, through local health officers, the university, and local teachers. Their efforts are ongoing.
COVID-19 Response Effort
Two new schools will be ready for opening in September, but due to current circumstances, we have suspended the start of the other two projects we had planned for this year. We are dedicated to our mission, though, and hope to start construction of the new schools and continue our programs as soon as the pandemic passes and funding is secured. Meanwhile, our educational gardens are flourishing under the volunteer care of community members and students.
Construction of Tis Abay School
Vegetable gardens at Sebatamit school
News Update - January 2020
Since the inception of Partners in Education Ethiopia (formerly FGCF), we have opened 12 schools in the Amhara region. Two more have begun construction as of January 2020, and we are entertaining applications for a further two projects to begin in 2020.
The teacher training program is in place in all twelve schools. The greening and gardening program is well under way in most of the schools, and we look forward to it beginning in the rest in 2020. Water tanks have been installed in many of the schools and access to water from nearby sources is ongoing.
We signed a Memorandum of Association (MoU) in 2019 with the WET Centre, an organization which provides sanitation & hygiene workshops. Our teachers are being trained by WET Centre staff so that they will be able to provide workshops themselves in all of our schools in 2020.
We also signed an MoU with Operation Eyesight in 2019, and our teachers have already begun being trained in eye screening of our students. Operation Eyesight has provided thousands of pairs of glasses for distribution, and the University of Bahir Dar medical school has agreed to facilitate operations for those students with more serious needs.
The Educational Gardening component of our projects has taken off in 2019. Students in a number of the schools have taken part in planting, nurturing, and selling various fruits and vegetables, and the program is being introduced in more schools each year. Our Monitoring and Evaluation Expert, hired in 2019, is helping to develop curricula that will incorporate the agricultural program into various class lessons.
We are piloting the use of a new environmentally friendly “rammed earth” wall material in one of our school’s latrines. Instead of digging pits, we will use collection boxes made of the rammed earth blocks and use the feces as a natural fertilizer for non-edible trees. Testing of soil mixtures in making the blocks with our custom made block-maker began in November 2019. If the blocks are successful, we will use them in other projects.
Reading and math assessments have been conducted each June for the past three years in all primary schools. Results are providing an invaluable tool to teachers and principals, as well as to our own experts, in assessing areas where our programs have been successful and areas where improvement may be warranted. Our Monitoring and Evaluation Expert is developing more subjective measures for assessment, to be introduced in 2020.
Project Update - June 2019
Our trip to Ethiopia in January was very successful: David and I visited all of our nine schools and attended the opening of the three new ones. Our team in Ethiopia is expanding, and we could not be happier with their enthusiasm, dedication, and performance.
FGCF is forging ahead with new partnerships with various local and international NGOs as well as with another regional university. Our teacher training program is expanding as we gain support in the areas of special needs and kindergarten classes, as well as in outcome assessment.
We have been able to bring water to three of our schools to date, which has allowed us to proceed with the greening and educational gardening program as well as our WASH sanitation and hygiene program. All plants and trees are growing in leaps and bounds, the strawberry gardens being particularly prolific. By all accounts, children are now eager to get to school early so that they can water the plots assigned to their respective classes. We are in the process of incorporating the many aspects of the gardens and gardening process that the students are able to experience hands-on into various course curricula.
Water Source at Sebatamit
Strawberry Planting
We are conducting a pilot project for the use of “rammed earth” material in the latrines at Bezawit, one of our 2019 schools. Rather than digging latrine pits, the rammed earth blocks are used to make a collection box. The waste collected will then be used as fertilizer in non-edible products grown in the school gardens. If the project is successful, we will proceed to use the new material in future school buildings.
We are proceeding to implement many of the suggestions made at our November 2018 strategic planning session. As per the plan, we are building four schools in 2019 and will continue that pace in the future. The objective is to concentrate on the holistic quality of our projects rather than quantity. We have also expanded our Board of Directors to five, with two more to be added in the near future. This is in consideration of ensuring a succession plan for the organization after the founders are no longer involved.
Please browse our website for a more detailed update of all of our projects, programs, and partnerships.
Opening of Gimjabet High School
Exciting Developments in Ethiopia!
Here is another missive from our Ethiopian Executive Director, Yehalem, about exciting developments in the country:
“The new prime minister pleasantly surprised many of us by bringing women to power in unbelievable size. He has down sized the ministries and appointed women to head 50% of them. This morning, the parliament approved his nominee for the Supreme Court and we have now the first woman president of the supreme court with the monumental task of making the justice system independent. More importantly, Ethiopia also got its first woman head of state (president) just last week.”
In other news, we have partnered with the international organization, Operation Eyesight, and Yehalem recently sent this report:
“Operation eyesight’s ophthalmologist gave a one day practical training to 2-4 teachers from our target schools on screening children with eye problems and the teachers have started screening students… Operation Eyesight people have also brought us lots of glasses which will be dispensed to students and staff by volunteers from the Bahir Dar University’s eye department.”