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Sapna In Ethiopia Part 5: I Have the Best Job Ever!

Today – A Day to Celebrate with the Girabered Primary School.  In December 2007 when imagine1day first sat with the Vice-Principal of Girabered, Amanuel, we learned that the school had been all but forgotten by the community.  Academic achievement was poor with less than 15% of primary school students passing the national High School Entrance Exams.  We observed the learning environment and teaching methodologies and immediately recognised the small things that we could do to start to improve the quality of education while building a relationship with the community.  Students were sitting on the floor to learn and teachers simply stood at the front of the class speaking at children.  There was a lack of focus and interest on both sides.  We started by providing desks for the students and training for the teachers in active learning methodologies.

Less than one year later, in September of 2008 we learned that 65% of the students passed their national exams.  Encouraged by these results, we continued our work with the PTA who focussed on educating the community on the changes that were occurring.  We helped the school to establish school clubs, creative writing programs and we continued to train and build the capacity of the teachers.  We also supported the school by providing a micro-irrigation set up and seed and fertilizer to plant vegetables for income generation.  Today we celebrated!  Not only did 100% of the students pass their national exams this past year, over 9 quintels of onions were harvested from the school’s first crop which will result in between $500 – $800 of revenue.  In the words of Yeheyis, imagine1day’s Program Coordinator, Girabered had been transformed from death to life and is now being used as a role model for other schools that imagine1day is working with.

Your support is incredible.
Sapna