The Ethiopian Ministry of Education (MoE) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the new READ II project to improve the reading and writing skills of 15 million children in grades 1-8.
The five-year-long, 86 million US dollars READ II project will build on successful partnerships forged between USAID and the ministry to improve primary-level reading skills by getting children to begin reading in their mother tongues, helping teachers to become better instructors of reading and supplying schools with supplementary reading materials.
The project will work with the ministry to refine and finalize a comprehensive reading package; develop a framework to align reading policies, initiatives, procedures, and resources; and bring together schools, communities, and education authorities to scale-up this program nationwide.
The USAID READ II project is also aligned with the broader General Education Quality Improvement Program (GEQIP/E) and will provide training to more than 130,000 teachers in 20,000 schools across Addis Ababa, Amhara, Oromia, Somali, and SNNP regional states during the project.
During the launch event at Bakello Primary School, U.S. Ambassador Michael A. Raynor said, “The better educated young Ethiopians are, the better prepared they will be to ensure their own success and to help build the democratic, prosperous, and stable Ethiopia we all want to see.”
