Revising English Curriculum in Ethiopia with a focus on preparing students to use English as medium of instruction in later years Aster Minwyelet (PhD) and Stephen Backman (PhD) aaddamu@read.rti.org sbackman@read.rti.org RTI international CIES 2017, Atlanta, Georgia

Focus of the presentation How READ TA is working with Ethiopian MoE to revise English curriculum with a focus on preparing students to use English as a MOI Outline Overview of Ethiopia Over view of READ TA project English situation analysis English curriculum revision process Participants views on revision process

Overview of Ethiopia >90 million 9 regions, 2 city administrations Diversity Religious Multicultural (>60 Ethnic groups) Multilingual (about 83 indigenous Languages)

Overview of Ethiopia: Language use in education Amharic –constitutional national language Use MT languages in primary education English A subject starting from primary Variation in using as MoI in upper primary MOI from Secondary on Extremely low English EGRA Poor English proficiency at all levels Impact on quality education at all level

Curriculum revision/ development READ TA overview USAID funded, 5 years project, started in 2012 Grades 1-8 Syllabus, SB, TG 7 MTs English CTE curriculum for MTs Curriculum revision/ development School teachers CTE lecturers Teacher training Educational leaders Experts (inbuilt) Resources (ICT) Capacity Building Syllabus + module dev’t Short training & workshops ICT package for CTEs AT – pilot for inclusion Model video & audio production

English situation Analysis Desk Study - examined current curriculum materials Field Study - examined how English is being implemented in schools (teachers & student views) Major gaps identified teaching-learning approaches language content alignment of syllabi & SBs challenges in transition to English as MOI alignment of mother tongue and English teacher training Recommendation – Major revision of curriculum materials

English curriculum Revision (ECR) Process National English curriculum Syllabus & MLC Scope & sequence Student books & Teacher guides Revision Team - diverse All regions represented Reading & English experts School teachers CTE lecturers University professors RSEBs & MoE experts Lead & support team National (English experts) Reading & curriculum experts International (reading experts) Experts in gender, inclusion, assessment, child dev’t

ECR Process MOI in Focus Engagement Training & support Full time Targeted Ongoing tips On-going support Engagement Full time One place Team work . K-12 syllabus Progression Cohesion MOI in Focus Alignment with MT Theme Content/language item T-L approach Alignment with CTE curriculum

ECR process: Quality assurance Team member review Lead consultants’ review Internal QA review International proofreaders Final validation Team . Field test feedback teachers students

Participants Views on ECR process: Interview Revision team Lead & support team Quality assurance team What are their views on Team composition Quality enhancement Content Approaches Thematic analysis

Participants Views on ECR process: . Team composition New experience Exposure & utilization of various perspectives & experiences (school teachers, teacher trainers, education leader, scholars) Huge capacity building Problem in selection (capacity gaps) Representation vs quality Some team members overloaded Task took long time More support was needed

Quality enhancement The revision starts from examining the current status & identifying gaps Lessons learned from MT curriculum revision had impact on quality: content & approach Comprehensive revision (1-12) Grade level teams interaction – impact on quality Field test feedback – helped to see materials in the eyes of end users Multi-level review helped to have comprehensive feedback Issues overlooked at one level captured at next levels

Inclusion of new components Content Content Scope & sequencing development (new experience, very helpful) Equivalent attention to all skills Inclusion of new components Phonological awareness Fluency Word study

Participants Views on ECR process: Alignment with MT Content Theme approach English MOI in focus Academic vocabulary Texts from academic contents

In-service teacher training Concerns Teacher quality? Competency gaps How can they model while their English proficiency is low? In-service teacher training Very critical than MT teacher training Can government funding allow training all teachers? Implementation follow up New contents might be skipped Support teachers

. Thank you! aaddamu@read.rti.org sbackman@read.rti.org