The final report on Gender Audit for Female Leadership within the Ethiopian Education Sector has been released. The report examined women leadership in the sector which was found to be low and looked at the working conditions of women in a male-dominated sector.
Started in 2018 and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the initiative is part of the Ethiopia READ II program, which aims to make Ethiopia’s 15 million children read proficiently by 2022.
This is to complement Ethiopia’s ambition of putting access to education at top of its agenda and help advocate for literacy among school aged children. According to USAID, the majority of children, about 67 prevent, cannot read at a functional level.
In addition, the report highlighted how Ethiopian women make up 39 percent of primary school teachers; accounting 9 percent of school directors.
The Teachers and Educational Leaders Development Directorate was contracted to bridge the disparity, and offer women leadership trainings and affirmative action initiatives focused on women leadership.
“The Ethiopia READ II activity, funded by USAID, aims to help 15 million school children to learn to read,” said Guy Bostock, Deputy Chief of Party, USAID/Ethiopia READ II Activity. “About half of those children are girls. When girls have women leaders such as school directors to inspire them, they are encouraged to stay in school and succeed academically.”
Partnering with Creative Associates International, Education Development Center and World Vision, it is to be a five year initiative. To meet its objective, the program among others, will provide teachers, trainings as well as mentorship to help change the education reality of Ethiopia by way of providing an enhanced model that follows evidence and technology based approach in 3,000 schools across 50 districts and in all parts of Ethiopia.
