1. 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)
RTI international
CIES 2017, Atlanta, Georgia

2. 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

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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

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

15. 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

16. .
Thank you!