Mission

To improve, advance, expand and prioritize early childhood care and education in rural Ethiopia by supporting existing schools, creating new programs, partnering with institutions and implementing a Pk-16 approach in the education system.

Vision

To provide children with a comprehensive early childhood care and education programs that enables them to become welders of their own destiny.

Organization Philosophy

This organization is built on the philosophy that investing in children’s early care and education in Ethiopia through a holistic approach, will not only help the birth-eight years population become lifelong learners but will also close the socio-economic gap, raise literacy rates and produce citizens that will be empowered to invest collectively for the advancement of all people. Early Childhood Education Ethiopia is founded on the principle that love, interaction, play and cultural influences shape the foundational domains of human development. By employing a constructivist curriculum model that promotes learning through exploration, a medium of instruction that celebrates the linguistic diversity of its pupils, application of developmentally appropriate practices including integration of traditional values and using differentiated instructions; it is the goal of this organization to meet the educational and developmental need of every child in Ethiopia through informed practice, policy and advocacy.

Guiding Principles

  1. We believe children learn best when their culture, community, traditions, and environment are used as the vessel to transmit knowledge.
  2. We believe children have the ability to construct knowledge using their boundless imagination,  by interacting with others who expand their thought processes and with materials that support creativity in a responsive environment.
  3. We believe parents are navigational experts,  problem solvers, astute communicators, negotiators, and equal contributors to their children’s education.
  4. We believe children’s education is our collective responsibility at the community, regional, country, and government levels.
  5.  We believe it is through education that one can rid of the onset, continuation, and cyclical nature of poverty.
  6.  We believe in indigenous education as much as formal education.
  7.  We believe in strength-based, identity-affirming, culturally relevant early education programs.
  8. We believe play is a brain-developing tool. Play is children’s way of interpreting their world. 
  9. We believe the child should lead us to the curriculum, not the curriculum to the child.
  10. We believe quality early education starts with qualified, innovative, loving, nurturing, and educated teachers.
  11. We believe learning matters, but playing in the mud matters more.
  12. We believe in meaningful interaction enveloped in responsive caregiving practices.
  13. We believe inclusive education is a must, a standard we will set.
  14. We believe in STEAM education, with an emphasis on the A for the Arts.
  15. We believe in neuro-diversity, in that, children learn and acquire knowledge through different modalities. 
  16. We believe our investment in children today, influences the direction of our collective outcome in the future.