iNSchool

The future of Ethiopia depends on the education of its children. Schools exist throughout most of the country to grade eight. Recognizing the value of International commerce all subjects are taught in English after grade five. Although it may be hard to understand the pronunciation usually you can find some one who is willing to try and speak with you. I met Maria who lives in Addis, the capitol city, and she is sponsoring a feeding program in one large eight year old school with a student body of 1,500 with about 60% girls.

The program only feeds one hundred students at the moment but the

Principle who is only 27 had done a carefully documented study of the results of the small program and showed amazing result. The test scores of these student improved by up to 75%. Most of these kids were of single parent families that had immigrated to the city from the country. They often didn’t have money for shoes or the mandatory uniforms and teachers would take up collections to supply them with some basic essentials.

I was very impressed by the quality of the education with very little resources. There was a unique student spirit that focused on every one helping each other rather then competing with each other. No one got left behind. I was awed by the fact they had no discipline

problem. Teachers and elders where respected and children wanted to learn. If there was a problem the students were brought before a student court, run entirely by the students with their own elected judges and jury and legal representation. The judgments were final and it demonstrated dramatically that peer pressure really worked.

Elias Omer is the lead member for this project. You can visit his web page for more information or find out how you can get involved in this project.