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.