The quality of education in Ethiopia is affected by different socio-cultural, economic, and political factors. As Gambella is among the emerging regions, it is characterized by poor social services such as lack of good health care and clean water, but also by a poor education system with high dropout and repetition rates especially for girls and children with special needs, unfavorable teaching and learning environments, inadequate and unqualified teachers, and poor school leadership practices to mention some.
The Technical Assistance to Reinforce General Education Quality Improvement Program for Equity (TARGET) project provides support to the Gambella Regional Education Bureau and Woreda [local administrative unit] Education Offices to strengthen the delivery of the General Education Quality Improvement Program for Equity and enhance learning outcomes. Since 2013 in the Ethiopian Calendar (2021), Link has been implementing task three of the project which focuses on developing the capacity of school leaders. Hence, fifty-nine school principals from the lowest-performing schools in the region were targeted for the continuous professional development program created by Link and delivered by cluster supervisors while the school leaders are on-the-job.
Ato Bedilu, school leader of Wibur primary school, managed to complete the four toolkits of the program through the coaching and mentoring support he received from his supervisor. He identified gaps in the school and developed action plans to overcome the problems. He said that the dropout rate reduced by 12% as compared to last year and the school also formed a committee that ensures the full participation of girls and children with disabilities.
The school leader of Jejebe primary school, Cham Achar, noted that after participating in the TARGET project, her school managed to mobilize the community to create awareness with regard to children with special needs. She also mentioned that the number of children with special needs dropping out of school decreased and the participation rate increased by 8% in 2014 E.C. (2022).
I’m proud to be part of such a project.
