My Work

I will be working at Debre Birhan College of Teacher Education where they train primary school teachers. My official title is English Language Improvement Programme Coordinator (which is the longest title I've ever had). In my “centre” - which is actually just a little room - I will provide English language training and teaching methodology training. This is part of a nationwide initiative to improve English in schools and move educators away from text books and teacher-centred approaches. I will have classes for the trainees who are training to become teachers, as well as the trainers at the college.

The Ethiopian education system has 12 grades. From grades 1-6 children are taught in the local language (which differs from region to region) except the subject of English. Then after grade 6 all subjects are taught in English. The problem is that a lot of Ethiopian teachers are not confident with their English so they find it very difficult to teach in English and teach English itself.

In addition to teaching English and methodology, I also have two other roles at the college. I am going to be working to produce teaching and learning materials, especially reading materials, which will then be distributed to all the surrounding schools.

I will also be involved with the Gender Club at the college. In Ethiopia females experience severe gender inequality and so the Gender Club aims to improve the confidence of female trainees and empower them to break gender stereotypes. So far I have managed to get my proposal for the several events planned for the coming year approved by VSO, and have thereby secured some funding for them which will be great.

In my English and methodology classes I will have 40 students - which is a lot more than I'm used to. I’m looking forward to teaching the trainees, but I’m really quite nervous about teaching the trainers. However, the good thing is that they are all extremely keen to improve their English and have told me how much they are looking forward to my classes. I’m not entirely sure where to start as I don’t have any information about them except that they are all majoring in the Natural Sciences (i.e. Biology, Chemistry and Physics) so it’s going to be interesting!

The pictures, taken from my kitchen window, show some of the buildings of the college. As you can see I don’t have to travel very far in the mornings.