The 2021 Annual Report highlights wins and losses for the Speed School program in Ethiopia and Uganda; achieving expansion to two new regions: Afar and Somali, receiving new funding from Education Cannot Wait (ECW), which allowed for the inclusion of students with disabilities, and notable steps taken by the Ethiopian government to adopt the Speed School program. A significant loss for this year’s Speed School-Ethiopia program was displacement in the Tigray and Amahara regions, caused by armed conflict between the government and members of the two regions. The armed conflict impacted Speed School’s “business-as-usual” operation, implemented by grantee civil society organizations/collaborating partners in response to COVID-19.
Uganda was unable to conduct a “business-as-usual,”model, as Speed School instruction was shut down by the Ministry of Education just three weeks after its commencement. Speed School Uganda plans to expand to four new districts and one municipality: the Agogo, Alebtong, Kitgum, and Otuke, regions, as well as the Kitgum Municipality. Despite the government shutdown of instruction, there were two instances where the pandemic lightening enough for instruction: from March to May and October to early December. In March to May, Geneva Global Uganda (GGU) brought 5,573 pupils into Speed School classes. In October to early December, the government approved a home-based learning strategy, in which small groups of the same students completed activity-based lessons on their own, supported by facilitator visits. Despite the disruption in education, 5,447 students took the end-of-year placement test to join conventional classes in 2022, and over 75 percent of the students qualified. Looking ahead to 2022, GGU plans to implement 230 classes, adding one new Northern district, Pader, and ten private low-fee schools in Kampala.