Increased Access to Quality Basic Education for OOSC in the Gambella Region of Ethiopia

January 04, 2019

Through partnership dating back to 2014, EAC and Save the Children have been working together in Ethiopia to enhance education access to the country’s most marginalised out of school children (OOSC). Focussing on the Gambella Region, this most recent joint project seeks to reach 35,088 OOSC who come from refugee and host communities with quality primary education.

Save the Children (STC) is one of the largest nongovernmental organisations in the world today. Its mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. STC has worked in Ethiopia since the 1930s. The education team works across seven regions in Ethiopia and is providing over 1.5 million children and youth with improved access to quality education services. Since 2008, STC has implemented more than 45 education projects in Ethiopia and has improved access by constructing primary schools, alternative basic education centres, satellite schools and early childhood centres, in addition to upgrading latrines, water wells, libraries and school laboratories.

The EAC/STC “Increased Access to Quality Basic Education for OOSC in the Gambella Region of Ethiopia” project is designed to reach both refugee and host community children. Together, EAC and Save the Children work to address the barriers faced by OOSC in accessing quality primary education for those respective communities. The total number of OOSC to be targeted by this project is 35,088. STC will work closely with the Agency for Refugees and Returnees Affair (ARRA), UNHCR and regional and local education authorities.

The main strategies of this joint project for improving the quality of education will centre on the training and mentoring of teachers to enhance literacy and numeracy instruction, in early grades and the primary-second cycle. There will be provision of education materials for OOSC, and the development and distribution of supplementary reading items in mother tongues to help instil a culture of reading. Save the Children will create child-friendly school environments by improving infrastructure, including gender-segregated WASH facilities. Moreover, community engagement and parents will be bolstered by the Community Action component of STC’s Literacy Boost, which aims to create school-home integration.

For more information about this EAC Implementing Partner, please visit the Save the Children website.