• DEC has Early Learning Material production center at Bahir Dar and
• DEC has deployed high level professional and  trained Educational expertise
• DEC has accumulated social capital  / partnership among the community and with different level of stakeholders and partners
• DEC has its own offices in Afar( Ayasita ) , Oromia (  Bacho- Tulu Bollo , Liben  Bedelle ) ,  Amhara ( Bahir Dar ), Addis Ababa

Thematic Areas

• Early childhood care and Development /Education (ECCD/ECCE) Accelerated school readiness,  Pastoral  Mobile schools
• Primary Education
• Secondary Education ( with special focus on Girls )
• School WASH
• Self-help Group (SHG ) and cluster level Association (CLA)
• Emergency in Education ( including refugee setting)
• Child Protection and child save guarding
• Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)
• Addressing the problems of children with disabilities
• Lobby and advocacy on child rights and services

Lesson Learnt

• Capacitating school teachers have a significant contribution to improve students achievement and  increases enrolment
• Supporting children families and capacitating children family helped to sustain children education
• Comprehensive intervention mechanism like Star School model really contribute to  school improvement and  promote save learning environment
• Focusing on capacity  development of regional and district level expertise ,and school principals enhance the implementation and effectiveness  of programs  in schools
• Technology-based school level assessment provide participatory and reliable data for intervention
• Creating a strong partnership with different agencies and stakeholders make the service more effective and sustainable
• Strong community mobilization, effective participation enhance a sense of ownership during project implementations

Challenges And Successes

Success  General

Key Achievements

Challenges

• Addressing complex, broad needs and long-serving problems of society /community needs critical prioritization and selection and possibly rise conflicts of interest; therefore it needs to empower the community as they find solutions of their own.
• A limited resource to uniformly serve and provide targets groups; for example, it is too challenging to capacitate each and every teacher in school; rather tries to scale up through other means; that may cause quality issues.

• Provision of Capacity building trainings for facilitators, teachers ,students , School Management , Education Expertise and Parent Teacher Association
• Construct, rehabilitate and renovate school buildings , Water ,Sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and  sport fields
• Provision of scholastic materials , reference books , school kits and pedagogical tools
• Establish and strengthen Self Help Groups (SHG)  and Cluster level Association (CLA)
• Support Education in Emergency responses ( including refugee schools )
• Mobile school and Accelerated School Readiness program facilitation in pastoralist society and host community
• Periodical monitoring and supportive supervision of projects and programs involving concerned partners and stakeholders
• Monitoring , Evaluation and Learning processes are  drawn and compiled as a  major lessons out of the implementation of the strategic plan

• Develop strong partnership and networking with stakeholders in the sector and promote integrated services
• Teachers , facilitators and expertise in the education system develop better facilitation , teaching and managerial knowledge and skills
• School Children learning environment and academic achievement improves
• Children of disadvantages ,children with disabilities , vulnerable children addressed with basic needs and improves their wellbeing
• Children quality life, socialization and self-esteem enhanced
• Parents and communities engagement and contribution for school development improved

• Children in preprimary school  (4-6) and primary school age( 7- 15 ) are the main targets of the project
• Youths in school , disadvantage and vulnerable  girls
• Facilitators , teachers, principals , School Management Committee, education expertise and school communities in Preprimary  and Primary education are key targets in the projects
• Parents, care takers, guardians of children are also targeted in the process of addressing the need of a child.

• Enhance the well-being of targeted children through holistic childhood care and development support and educational support.

Strategies of the program

• Establish and strengthen partnership and networking with multiple stakeholders
• Train and capacitate partners, parents, and community members
• Promote inclusions of disadvantageous groups: people with disability and refugee children
• Create a child-friendly conducive school environment.
• Promote life skills of children particularly for school girls
• Addressing target through satellite services via clustered schools

Key tools & approaches

• Star School Model – is a comprehensive model to improve school learning, teaching, management, school environment, and community participation. This approach has about ten modules provided by high-level expertise in two years a long time. It has five pillars.

• • Safe learning environment
  • Learners
  • Teachers
  • School management
  • community

• Classroom Filming– it is a practical assessment of teachers capability in the provision of learning; and analysis of the practice indicates problems and the intervention direction
• AKVo flow /Edu.Q card/is an innovative technology that uses an app to assess the level of school in various components with the involvement of the school community, parents, education expertise, and program person.
• SLSSH (Student Lead School Sanitation and Hygiene) – it is an approach in which students in school establish clubs and lead their school sanitation and hygiene activities
• Aflatoun – Social and Financial Education of children training Modules.
• EDU-Q Card is a newly developed school-based instrument ( app) built upon the main principles of the Star school model.
• AFL – Assessment for Learning(AFL) practical   training manual
• SMT- School Management Training manual
• ATL – Active Teaching and learning