The Ethiopian Rural Education Project (EREP) established two model schools to teach kindeergarten through the first four grades of curriculum (K-4) in Western Wollega, Ethiopia. Four years is commonly accepted as the level necessary for permanent literacy and numeracy. This area is in great need of rural schools, having had 132 schools confiscated or destroyed during the Marxist regime in the 1970s-early 1990s. The literacy rate is about 20 percent for men, and less for women. The schools teach the standard Ethiopian state curriculum adapting the instructional methodology developed by the Rishi Valley Institute for Education Resources (RIVER) in Andhra Pradesh, India. The schools are administered by the community development division of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY). Admission to the schools is open to students in the community regardless of gender or religious affiliation.
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The Rishi Valley model is efficient and effective, and was selected by the EECMY leaders in Dembi Dollo, Ethiopia, to implement in their community. The schools use inexpensive, computer-generated, instruction cards, referred to as the “school in a box”; the cards are shared among all students in the school. The cards are laminated, thus extending their life-use to about three years. Children progress through the cards at their own pace after satisfying the teacher that they have mastered the material. Children study in groups defined by learning level (not age), and help each other learn under the supervision of a teacher.
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Teachers in these schools require less formal education than do teachers in government schools. Children succeed -- and succeed at their own pace. In India, children who complete the curriculum perform as well or better on state examinations compared to children who attend the Indian government schools; we anticipate similar results in Ethiopia. The “school in a box” has more than 20 years’ success in India. It has been adopted by many localities in the State of Andhra Pradesh and by the 40,000 government elementary schools in the State of Tamil Nadu, India It also has been adapted for tribal peoples and for other states (and languages) in India. The Rishi Valley administrators who will advise this project are well experienced at adopting the methodology to other languages and cultures.
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