Building a Strong Foundation to Improve Learning Outcomes in Ethiopia

Eldana is a 6-year-old student in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. She enjoys learning and wants to become a teacher. She is part of the O-Class, a pre-primary educational program in Ethiopia. O-Class is designed to help more students improve their learning outcomes by ensuring they are better prepared for primary school. This, in turn, reduces the likelihood that they will drop out or repeat Grade 1.

O-Class uses a play-based curriculum suitable for young children. It also provides teacher training and learning materials.

Before O-Class was introduced, primary education completion rates in Ethiopia registered at 50%. This low efficiency was partly due to many students attending school irregularly and not starting their education at the official enrollment age. In fact, many over-age children start Grade 1, likely due to grade repetition.

Through the General Education Quality Improvement Program for Equity (GEQIP-E), the Government of Ethiopia has made significant strides in enhancing internal efficiency, equitable access, and the overall quality of education. Launched in 2017, GEQIP-E has implemented a range of targeted interventions across all of Ethiopia’s primary and secondary public schools. It is a government-led and multi-donor-supported initiative to strengthen the education sector from the bottom up and ensure students and teachers receive the support they need. First introduced in 2010, the O-class provides pre-primary children with a strong foundation for handling primary school challenges and navigating their transition from first to second grade.

Improving Internal Efficiency

“[GEQIP-E was necessary because] the country’s education system urgently needed to rebuild its capacity, particularly at the foundational levels. Without a strong base in both cognitive and non-cognitive skills, students’ learning would be less effective in later stages. Therefore, the program primarily targeted early grades and ensured that children entering primary education possess basic numeracy and literacy skills,” said Hiroshi Saeki, former GEQIP-E Task Team Leader from the World Bank.

As of 2023, the O-class program has benefited over 2.3 million children, and the government extended it to a two-year pre-primary program alongside its other interventions.

“This is certainly a move in the right direction,” said Kirill Vasiliev, previous GEQIP-E Task Team Leader. “O-Class has great potential for impact at scale. It will be great to assess the results carefully, discuss it with the policymakers, and explore the options to scale up the O-Class approach”. Indeed, despite challenges such as the impact of COVID-19 and recent conflicts on school attendance, as of 2022/23 Ethiopia has achieved an 88% transition rate to grade two.

Improving Quality

The O-Class is a new approach for Ethiopia, necessitating the modification of previous methods of instructing young children. To deliver O-Class objectives, GEQIP-E provides O-Class training programs for O-Class teachers and their school administrators on how to teach preprimary children.

Dagmawit Eshetu, Eldana’s teacher, says: “I have taken O class training. It is very different from the training I have taken previously because, at the time, we didn’t know how to teach children. But now we understand how to teach them, play with them, and bring out their interest in education. For instance, we use songs for teaching; they learn the alphabet through singing, and we tell stories. Although the children think they only play while singing, they learn a lot through play.”

While the outlook for preprimary education is promising, the challenges of reforming Ethiopia’s education system are vast. Ethiopia has 27 million students, and the number and quality of teachers available to them will significantly impact their school performance.

While the government has worked hard to train more teachers, many do not pass their licensing exams. When they begin teaching, they face overcrowded classrooms and a shortage of school materials. Zemen Ashenafi is a math and key teacher at Nigist Fura School in Hawassa City, Sidama region. Key teachers work alongside subject teachers to support the delivery of lesson plans and help teachers apply recommended pedagogical methods. Zemen identifies insufficient training opportunities as a critical challenge for new teachers.

Throughout its implementation, GEQIP-E delivered a training and coaching program for teachers, school leaders, and supervisors. The program also focused on developing digital skills among secondary school teachers through training, providing tablets and assessment tools, and supplying textbooks for critical subjects in primary and middle schools. In total, 102,117 teachers have been trained. As a result, these efforts significantly improved learning outcomes, particularly in middle schools.

As part of GEQIP-E, teachers were also trained in Continuous Classroom Assessment (CCA). This pedagogical method allows teachers to continuously assess students’ progress and understanding of the taught material on a daily basis. Students are then categorized according to their needs: those who require intensive support, average support, and enrichment.

“CCA requires the students to revise the topics they haven’t comprehended well,” said Bereket Arega, a school principal in Hawassa. “It requires teachers to continuously evaluate the classroom, identifying the problematic areas that the children are facing and supporting them. The plan enables the teacher to assess and flexibly adapt to the situation.”

According to Zemen Ashenafi, CCA training has significantly improved the teaching and learning process. The classes have become more interactive, with increased student engagement. Students’ reading habits have improved, and they are now involved in more creative activities. Additionally, she observes that CCA training has motivated and increased the drive of teachers to teach.

Ensuring Equitable Access

Ethiopia’s Education Statistics Annual Abstract reported that in 2015/16, only 8.1% of children with special needs were enrolled in primary schools and 1.5% in secondary education. Challenges in supporting children with special needs in mainstream schools include a lack of awareness and capacity to implement special needs education activities and a lack of educational resources.

Ethiopian schools also need to be safer and more accessible for female students. This includes ensuring the availability of separate latrines for girls, hiring female teachers, and developing and delivering life skills training, counseling, and adolescent girls’ empowerment programs.

Thanks to GEQIP-E, there has been significant progress in ensuring equitable access to education. Over 72% of primary schools are now equipped to support girls’ enrollment and retention through the establishment of gender clubs at the school level. In historically disadvantaged regions, such as Afar, Somali, and Benishangul-Gumuz, the gross enrollment rate of girls in upper primary schools has improved significantly, increasing from a 2017 baseline of 39% to 45% in 2023. To meet the needs of children with special needs, GEQIP-E established 1,400 Inclusive Education Resource Centers nationwide. These centers provide essential services to over 148,528 students, 52% of whom are girls with special needs. GEQIP-E has also prioritized training over 10,000 teachers and experts in inclusive settings, enabling them to teach children with special needs effectively.

Says Semira Kemal, a special needs student in Addis Ababa: “I’ve received different materials from the resource center in my school. My stylus was broken, and I got a new one from here. I also got a slate and voice recorder; these all are helping me a lot.”

“In the past, our society used to hide their special needs children at home,” said Ejeta Mekonnen. “Through these centers, we have provided support for eyeglasses. We have also provided support for wheelchairs. In the past, students’ parents had to carry them to school, but now they successfully use wheelchairs to go to school and learn.”

Education in Post-Conflict Settings

One major cause of educational inequality is the effect that conflict has on children.

“Currently, Ethiopia’s education sector is affected by natural and man-made disasters, resulting in millions of children who are out of school,” said Mezgebu Biazin, Executive Officer at the Ministry of Education, who emphasized that in conflict-affected areas, teachers and school leaders have experienced trauma. He stressed the importance of providing support and training to teachers before focusing on regular teaching and learning activities.

Abdul Hai Sofizada, current GEQIP-E Task Team Leader, explains: “GEQIP-E has been evolving to address some of the emergency needs of the education sector over the last several years”.

“GEQIP-E has been playing a critical role in supporting the recovery effort throughout the country in the continuity of educational services,” said Ademe Zeyede Hailu, Economist and GEQIP-E co-task Team Leader.

In addition to supporting the rehabilitation of schools affected by the recent conflict and providing psychosocial support to school community members, Ademe noted that the program is constructing 500 classrooms in 50 primary schools in conflict-affected areas where existing schools have been damaged. Once completed, these schools are estimated to enroll approximately 22,500 students. Furthermore, Ethiopia hosts around 1 million refugees, a figure that has grown since the onset of conflict in Sudan. Addressing the educational needs of refugee communities is a priority for the government, as education is a fundamental right of refugee children.

GEQIP-E has supported refugee primary schools by providing learning materials, school grants, and teacher training programs. This has benefited 52 refugee schools and 1,346 refugee incentive teachers (refugee incentive teachers are those refugees able to work as teachers for a UN or NGO agency in exchange for a monthly stipend). Meanwhile, six refugee secondary schools have successfully integrated into the government system, while an additional four schools are currently in the process of being integrated, with top-up school grants being provided to aid their integration.

Additionally, GEQIP-E empowers refugee girls, promotes self-directed learning, and provides support for refugee schools by providing WASH facilities and sanitary pads. The program also provides essential resources such as vehicles, motorbikes, and tablets to refugee-hosting regions.