As I reflect on the year on my way out of Ethiopia, it’s amazing to think about the progress and accomplishments of Nuru’s Education Program during 2014. Here are just a few of the highlights:
Kenya
- In Kenya, we are working with the most schools and students we ever have. We worked with 17 schools across 2 divisions, with over 6,000 students. We are adding 1 more division, 8 more schools, and several thousand more students next year.
- Program Manager George Baridi assumed full control of the Education program in the spring of 2014 and has done an exceptional job leading the Education team, mentoring staff members, planning, and creating long-term budget projections. I am proud to work with him and all of the staff at Nuru Kenya.
- Our Training Manager, George Nyamweya, completed the first full draft of our curriculum for the Education Program in the middle of 2014. This new curriculum has helped our staff structure lessons in a more effective way and improve the achievement of students.
- Our Education team has been actively involved in trainings to improve their facilitation techniques and they are beginning to work with teachers in schools to share the techniques we are using.
- Once again, teachers in the schools we worked on were overwhelmingly happy with the Nuru Education program on our end of the year survey and almost all said they saw growth in reading abilities.
- Finally, we saw great progress towards our goal of students achieving Standard 2 literacy this year. We are excited to continue next year taking the lessons that we’ve learned and providing an even better program in the future.
Ethiopia
- After transitioning out of Kenya in June, I turned my attention to Ethiopia and preparing for Nuru’s Program Planning Process (PPP). I have conducted a lot of research and met with other education NGOs and stakeholders that have really helped us prepare for this process.
- In November, we hired four new staff members for Nuru’s Education Program who are all exceptional. I’m excited to start working with them in January when we start the PPP in full.
- We are excited to be given the opportunity to plan this program and build for the future.
It was a great 2014, and here’s to an even better 2015!