The Ethiopian alphabet has 35 root letters, each of which takes on 7 forms with a total of 245 characters. The current approach to teaching this alphabet has children copy all 245 characters into their notebooks while repeating them aloud over and over again. They do this almost exclusively all day, every day for the first year of their education.
 It is a very ineffective way to teach the Ethiopian alphabet, and it leaves children disliking school and increases the drop-out rate. The current enrollment rate in grade 1 is 71% for males and 66% for females, while the primary school attendance rate is only 45% for both sexes. An estimated 68% of those students reach 5th grade. Secondary school attendance rates drop to 30% for males and 23% for females.
 We have developed a phonetic based, systematic, interactive, and fun approach to teach the Ethiopian alphabet. We believe this new approach will inspire creativity throughout the Ethiopian educational system.
 This project aims to study the Ethiopian language in a new and happy atmosphere with “Tsehai”, a popular character in Ethiopia. By using songs and animation, the program will carry a good tempo to heighten the learning effect.

 We are very excited to address the Ethiopian alphabet in a fun and systematic way through “Tsehai’s Fidel School.” This is a topic we’ve been eager to address for a long time. This fund will help us create the pilot episode and the first Ethiopian alphabet song.
 Beyond the thrill of winning at the JAPAN PRIZE, the awards have gone a long way in terms of establishing our credibility and have helped us establish new partnerships and strengthen our stability. We are extremely thankful to the National Federation of UNESCO Associations and Japan Prize for helping making our idea a reality.

TOP