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A School Link with Ethiopia is designed for schools who want to make a real commitment, and who are prepared to think in terms of a medium to long term project. For shorter periods of involvement, we invite schools to join our School Support Programme.

Link Ethiopia has run a successful School Linking scheme for over a decade. Although it requires some time and commitment from both sides, with patience and a little effort, a link can flourish into a productive, long-term partnership where both schools work together to learn from each other and to share their cultures and their experiences.

Particularly with the current academic emphasis on exploring global themes in the classroom, a school link can be an effective way of bringing these studies to life.

How does it work?

Once Link Ethiopia has introduced schools to each other in the UK and Ethiopia, each school identifies a pair of teachers who act as Link Coordinators. They become the focal point for link-related activities within their school, while we at Link Ethiopia offer constant help, advice and support along the way.

The coordinators build up their link, with our help, in the following ways:

• Regular communications: Pupils in both schools write to each other, send drawings, and add updates to an internet blog which is shared by the two partner schools.
• Visits: Link Ethiopia helps to organise trips for teachers wishing to visit their partner schools in person. Senior students from UK secondary schools may also wish to take part in group visits to Ethiopia, and again we have lots of experience to share with this, and offer our help and support at every turn.
• Gap year teaching: Secondary schools have the opportunity to send volunteers with Link Ethiopia to teach during their gap year before university. This programme has been running with great success for well over ten years.
• Country specific resources: We provide both schools with lots of information on their partner school, on the area they are situated, and on the education system and culture of Ethiopia. For the UK schools we also have an extensive collection of Ethiopian photos, DVDs, music, books and artefacts, which can be borrowed for displays.
• Teaching resources: Schools can work together to create stimulating teaching resources and schemes of work that make their link a valuable feature of the teaching curriculum and help bring topics to life for pupils.
• Fundraising: Link Ethiopia identifies the most pressing needs that the Ethiopian partner school faces. These can include safe drinking water, insuffient classrooms, inadequate toilet facilities or a lack of library books. We work with the partner Ethiopian school to gauge what they and their local community are able to achieve, and where the UK school can help to improve these issues. On completion of a fundraising project, students in the UK get a certificate to commemorate their efforts and photos of the completed projects.

What are the benefits?

By helping students and teachers in both countries to identify the similarities between their cultures, and to respect and learn from the differences, these links can play a major part in developing global awareness.

Ethiopian students are helped in gaining a better education, with improved facilities and resources.

How long does this last?

There is no formal time commitment for a school link, but we do ask that schools consider a period of at least 2 or 3 years to enable pupils to gain the maximum benefit.

As mentioned above, if you are a UK school interested in learning about Ethiopia, but over a shorter timescale, you may be interested in our School Support Programme.
 
 

Will I get any support to help run a School Link?

Yes! Link Ethiopia has gained a great deal of experience in these areas over the last twelve years, and there is a team of people in the UK on hand to help you whenever needed. We also have a Country Manager in our Ethiopia office who visits each school regularly, monitors the links and evaluates our ongoing development projects.

What will all this cost?

We do ask for a small annual contribution to help meet some of the costs of supporting and developing these links, but this is kept at a very reasonable level, especially in comparison with sums charged by other groups working in other countries. To find out more about this, or to ask any other questions, please contact us here.

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