Director

Manager / Teacher

Project Summary

 The tragic effects of COVID-19 are no stranger to all. Many lives have been damaged within Africa, a continent that was already struggling with poverty and political upheavals. Like many other nations, Ethiopia had to deal with the pandemic on top of her economic and political struggles. COVID-19 have been especially felt in the education sector.

There are about 20 million students in Ethiopia. According to government data in 2019, 70% of schools were closed during the pandemic. Schools were closed for 8 months, and only re-opened in mid-November 2020. Students struggled mentally and physically during the stay-home quarantines. Girls were subjected to rape and forced marriages. Female students were especially affected, so much so that the prime minister mentioned it in his parliamentary speech. Because of this the government decided to re-open schools. COVID-19 prevention rules were enforced, such as reducing the class sizes by half to maintain social distancing. As a result, schools had to reduce the number of students.

Prior to COVID-19, each class could hold 50-60 students. However current rules required cutting down the class size to 25. To allow as many children as possible to attend, student would only get to attend school for a maximum of 3 days a week and would have to stay home for the remaining 4 days.

 Of note, female students had to spend their free time doing chores instaed of studying. A number of children lost interest in attending school. We encountered this problem in a rural school only 10km from the capital city, Addis Ababa.
We were moved to try to help the children and youth in this community. Creating an added two hours of school time would bring great benefits to their educational development. We wanted to be creative and imaginative in persuading them to return to school.

It is also clear in Ethiopia that many have great interest in English literacy. In the Ethiopian education system, English is the medium of instruction from upper primary school. Here arranging afterschool English classes would greatly benefit these students.

Our project aims to assist students from Grades 7-12 who are suffering from the problems I mentioned above. We aim to work on speaking, writing, listening, and reading in English. We will do this through didactic teaching, assignments, presentations, and videos. International textbooks and dictionaries will be used as a resource in our sessions.

1

Creating a safe and clean environment for youths.

2

Teaching English in a creative yet practical way.

1. English

Many students enjoy English class the most as it incorporates practical elements as opposed to merely teaching theory, as is standard in normal schools. We covered speaking, listening, reading, and writing. We also focused on vocabulary improvement and the correct use of commonly used words and phrases.

2.Mathematics

 In this class, we kept the lessons simple and interesting, and focused on common skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. We made the lessons practical and focused on application to problems relating to actual daily life. The students have shown significant improvement in their understanding of the basics, which would greatly benefit them as they re-enter their own schools after term break.

3. Art

Students have enjoyed creating art pieces using watercolors and oil paints. The lessons started with the sketching of simple lines and shapes and progressed to complicated motifs. We saw clear improvement in artistic skill and some students have demonstrated natural artistic talent.

In Ethiopia, education is considered an important means of escaping poverty. However, many villagers do not understand the importance of education. Education centers are seen as ways to occupy time, as opposed to a means of learning how to improve one’s life and transform the country. As a result, children are not motivated to attend school, and parents are not keen to support their children through high school.

There are also situations where students who attend normal school do not have a place to spend their time after school. Many end up being involved in risky behaviors to earn money, such as gambling and taking recreational drugs. Their behavior usually escalates until they have to leave the area and move on to live off the streets.

Our ideas for afterschool projects during school season and a summer school project during term break arose as a means to tackle these issues. Within these projects, students will have an opportunity to supplement their education and a means to spend their free time productively and safely, ultimately aiming towards improvement in their education and their futures. It is also a vehicle with which to inspire and to emphasize the importance of education to the community.