A remarkable turnaround at Yadot School

Five years ago a visibly-upset father Ahmedteyib Mohammed stormed into the teacher’s office at Yadot Primary School, furious that after four years at school, his son was still illiterate.
“The quality of education in the school used to be so bad.
Joy, heartbreak and a determination for change

Bidil Abdulahi has experienced joy and heartbreak in his attempt to send his children to school. Now he’s on a mission to ensure all the children in his village get a chance to learn.
Finishing school often a matter of luck

Meet Semere Iqubay, the self-described “lucky” kid on track to be the first child in his entire family history to complete primary school.
Semere, 16, is already more educated than anyone in his family.
Dealing with classroom distractions

From donkeys outside the classroom to students with cellphones, teacher across the world deal with classroom distraction every day. This World Teachers Day, we took at look at what Ethiopian educators face.
A daily school routine in Ethiopia

Roll call. Check. School announcements. Check. Water sprayed across the dusty classroom floor. Check.
It’s all in the daily routine for 15-year-old Hayelom Hadgu, one of hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian students heading back to an imagine1day partner school this month.
Ethiopia looks to the stars with its new space observatory

Semere Iqubay has never flown in an airplane. Indeed, the last time he saw a plane, he was four years old. His remote village sits near the border of Ethiopia and Eritrea where a no-fly zone has been in place due to simmering tensions between the neighboring countries.
A great reason to smile

Kendahaw has the type of smile that is truly genuine. He poses for photos, but he never forces a smiles. It just comes naturally. Perhaps for a good reason, because life has changed dramatically for the 12-year-old in the past year.
Better late than never

Sitina Mohammed is a 15-year-old girl who goes to Dumey School in Ethiopia’s Meda Welabu district, where imagine1day has just inaugurated a new school.
Sitina comes from a big family and is the the oldest, with three brothers and two sisters.
Communities taking the lead on construction

There’s a construction boom happening in rural Ethiopia.
Empowered through leadership development and inspired by the education transformation we support, communities are taking school construction into their own hands.
They’ve built 437 classrooms and refurbished another 117 in just three months – and funded all the construction themselves.
A cultural shift against corporal punishment

For many of us, receiving the ‘strap’ at school is a distant recollection, or something we’ve never before experienced.
In Ethiopia though, corporal punishment in rural schools is often the norm.