Ministry reviews pastoralist school modality

ADDIS ABABA-Ministry of Education reviews pastoralist educational strategies and mobile school as an alternative basic education to enable education access in the major pastoralist areas of Afar, Somalia, Benishangul Gumuz, Gambela and Oromia States. Education Ministry Special Support and Inclusive Education Directorate, Senior Expert, Fekade Negash told The Ethiopian Herald that 2008 Pastoralists’ Education Strategy is revised based on a professional survey. The survey mainly focused on alternative basic education and mobile school. The Directorates of the Ministry and representatives of the pertinent regions were involved in the revision of the strategy, Fekede furthered. He also noted that pastoralists are not able to attend formal education as they move from one place to other places; as a result, revising the strategy assists to access education in a mobile approach as it includes various modalities. The mobile schools meet the demands of pastoralists’ mobile lifestyles by physically moving schooling to match the mobile livelihood patterns of pastoralists, with an aim to deliver education to learners anytime and anywhere. And the approach increases access to school for pastoralist children and ensures continuity of learning despite their constant movements and demands of livelihood-related labor requirements, he noted. Manuals of Alternative Basic Education implemented to offer education to the children between the age of 7 and 14 at grades 1 to 6 levels. And Mobile School manuals will be for the first cycle grade levels, 1 to 4 only, he detailed. Read more...