For more than a decade, Geneva Global Ethiopia has worked alongside Ethiopia’s education authorities to expand learning opportunities for out-of-school children, implementing the accelerated education Speed School program. As evidence of the model’s success in transitioning these children to conventional classes, where they routinely excel, regional governments began adopting and funding the program on their own. This culminated in Ethiopia’s incorporating the model in its national education strategy in 2020. Today, the government funds and operates the majority of Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) classes nationwide through dedicated structures, including Speed School Unit within the Ministry of Education and several regional education bureaus.
As Ethiopia’s Accelerated Learning Program continues to expand, attention has increasingly shifted to ensuring that the model’s quality and effectiveness are sustained as implementation grows across regions and contexts. New research supported by the Global Partnership for Education’s Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (GPE KIX) examines how ALP is being delivered across multiple regions, particularly in conflict-affected contexts. The overall research effort explores how the program is captured as policy and functioning within government systems, identifying both the factors supporting successful implementation and the challenges that remain as the program scales.
In a recent report, Dr. Zenawi Zerahun, a professor at Mekelle University, summarizes key findings from the broader research initiative. He suggests that Ethiopia’s transition from a partner-supported model to a government-led program is gaining traction, with strong policy support for accelerated education and broad recognition of ALP as an effective pathway for out-of-school and overage learners. He also identifies specific opportunities to strengthen the government’s implementation of ALP through actions such as more standardized training, improved supervision and monitoring systems, and practical tools that support consistent understanding and delivery of the ALP pedagogic strategy and methods across regions.
Together, these findings aim to help inform the path forward for both the government and its many ALP partners as Ethiopia continues to strengthen and expand a nationally adopted model that is now reaching learners through government-led systems.