Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, ambassador Tracey Ann Jacobson, expressed the Embassy’s continued commitment to Ethiopia’s education sector, especially in English language instruction at universities across the country.
Ambassador Jacobson and Dr. Solomon Abraha, CEO of Higher Education, Governance, and Administration at the Ministry of Education, jointly launched the nationwide conference “Enhancing English Language Teaching in Ethiopian Public Universities.”
During her remarks, she highlighted the importance of a strong command of English to open doors to higher levels of education and career opportunities. For the Ministry of Education, Dr. Solomon expressed his appreciation for the partnership with the U.S. Embassy not only for strengthening English language capacity as a whole, but specifically for supporting the English Language Improvement Centers across Ethiopia’s public universities.
The U.S. Embassy has been contributing to English language learning in Ethiopia through diverse programs, including English Access Microscholarships (Access), English Language Fellows Program, English Language Specialists, and the Online Professional English Network Program. About two thousand students in Ethiopia have benefited from the Access program alone.
The Embassy has also invested in English teacher training, both on-line and in classrooms through the English Language Fellow Program and more than twenty highly qualified U.S. educators in the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) have participated in ten-month-long fellowships at academic institutions in Ethiopia since 2002.
English Language Specialists, American academics, and professionals in TESOL have also conducted teacher training and curriculum development. The U.S. Embassy has also invested in English teacher training, both on-line and in classrooms
The English language conference is another example of the American people partnering with the people of Ethiopia to improve the quality of education in Ethiopia.
