15 July 2008
Addis Abeba — The Oromia Education Bureau (OEB) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on Monday presented successful outcomes of a Community-Based Basic Education Improvement Project.
Nicknamed the ManaBu Project, the patnership has jointly implemented programs from Nov. 2003 to Mar. 2008.
In that respect, twenty-four schools constructed so far have been found to register remarkable achievement in terms of effective school management with strong commitment and participation of both community and local government, officials from the two sides said at a Dissemination Workshop of the project attended by Ministry of Education Dr. Sintayehu W. Michael, Japanese ambassador to Ethiopia Kinich Komano, Katsuhiro Sasaki, Resident Representative of JICA Ethiopia Office and ather dignitaries.
The project is said instrumental in lowering drop out rate at Grade I as well as ensuring equal opportunities for boys and girls.
The project also aims at developing a prototype model of community-based school on how to plan, construct and manage the schools.
The OEB on the occasion presented successful outcomes including developed three guidelines on "Planning" "Construction" and "Management" of ManaBU School Based on the actual lessons learned from experiences.
The Project adopts the Ministry of Education's low cost standard of construction, which has two blocks of two-classroom with concrete foundation and mud wall which it said could be constructed with 150,000-200,000 ETB because of community's contribution as provision of cash, locally available materials and unskilled labor.
Accordingly, the guidelines provide practical skills and knowledge for various stakeholders on how to establish and manage community-based schools with close cooperation between community and local government in order to improve access to quality of education especially in remote rural areas, while also contributing to each community's empowerment.
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