Ethiopian delegation visiting India to adopt best practices from education sector

New Delhi, Feb 21 (IANS) In an effort to learn from the Indian education system and to gather prevailing best practices, a delegation from ministry of education, Government of Ethiopia is currently visiting India. The focus of their visit is on adapting best practices like mid-day meal programs, teacher training and mother tongue instructions from India.

The delegation also participated in a select media round tableon Tuesday. Dr. Jordene Hale, Chief of Party led the discussion along with Ato Tayachew Ayalew, Director, Mother tongue and English Language education development and Mr. Birhanu Moreda, Advisor to State Minister of General Education, Government of Ethiopia.

They were accompanied by Mr. Himanshu Sikka, Chief Strategy and Diversification Officer, IPE Global Ltd. and Shalender Sharma, Vice-President, Education and Skills Development, IPE Global Ltd.

Led by Dr Hale, the delegation also interacted with government officials from the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), NCERT, Mid-Day Meal Programme, as well as the recipients of the Gandhi Fellowship.

IPE Global, an international development consulting group, organised the visit and stakeholder engagements for the delegation.

Ethiopia's growing youth population -- the second largest in Africa -- presents a huge challenge to the education system. An estimated three million primary school-aged children and more than 20 million youth are currently outside of the formal school system.

Of out-of-school youth, a large proportion have had no education at all (84 percent in rural areas and 33 percent in urban areas). Urban youth unemployment is 50 percent and this figure is even higher in rural areas.

The Ethiopian education system has been implemented under a mother tongue language policy, the goals of which are to improve literacy rates and academic achievement, as well as to enhance appreciation of local languages and cultures.

The delegation is visiting as part of United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Reading for Ethiopia's Achievement Developed Monitoring and Evaluation (READ M&E) project, supported activity implemented by the American Institutes for Research (AIR).

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