S.E.F.E.D

The education system is a social contract between the community and the academic institutions. This education system is not an exclusive territory of elites and powerful groups. The power to shape the system lies in the hand of the people. When overtaken by a minority of powerful groups, the system falls prey to 'alienation of the people' and 'dehumanization'- a visible manifestation seen nowadays.

SEFED is a space of experiments aiming for educational development and reform. Students, teachers and community members are encouraged and supported to experiment their ideal form of education and to collectively act towards reforming the education system, enabling them to re-imagine, experiment and recreate.

The global scaling of SEFED, a collaborative mechanism which enables everyone to contribute and change the world they live in, would ensure the exercising of a quality and inclusive education everywhere.

The UN's sustainable development goals' aim of creating a better world is based on a pillar of quality education. The question lies in the very word of the goal, "what is quality?"

Paulo Freire, in his book titled " Pedagogy of the Oppressed", underlines that the Oppressed, through the oppressive education system, have no political power to bring change to the systematic education. He states that the people can only fight for their liberation and humanization through carrying out numerous educational experiments. An educational experiment is a model of the ideal educational system, being experimented continuously until it reaches a suggestible and scalable stage.

The central problem of the current educational system is that it dehumanizes the people through alienating them and keeping them disabled of making changes to the system made to serve them. This allows the powerful to use the education system as an instrument of oppression and silencing. The basic philosophy of education, its quality, accessibility, and inclusiveness is at a very inefficient stage. Yet, only the elites are allowed to make changes to it.

This is a global problem of the educational challenge. It has become a playing field for a certain exclusive groups. Unless a person is actively participant in shaping and reshaping his/her world, the free and expressive existence is taken away and the person is made a recipient of the oppressor's will. What educational problem is more unbearable than dehumanization and alienation?The UN's sustainable development goals' aim of creating a better world is based on a pillar of quality education. The question lies in the very word of the goal, "what is quality?"

All along, people have been suggesting solutions to the educational challenge. The problem was that they thought their idea was the lone medicine. With an experimenting opportunity given to an exclusive portion of the community, change has been delayed for long.

SEFED is a networking and incubating platform for educational experiments carried by students, teachers and the community. It is filled with experiments addressing the issues of quality, accessibility and inclusiveness of education. Through our platform, experiments gain financial and material funding, partner with other experiments to have bigger impacts, and get mentorship and advice from senior member. This interactive environment is very helpful in reaching bigger impacts together, much more efficient than working alone.

This path is, in itself, a process of humanization- an authentic being that is able to work and working transform the world. It brings a cyclic effect of reforming the educational system together, and being part of the reformed system.

The result and progress continuously collected from the experiments are made public and suggested to be adapted to the systematic education.

When everyone is assured of their ability to shape and reshape the educational system, the authentic and expressive self is let out. SEFED is a guaranteeing method towards creating a person-centered all-inclusive system.

The SEFED platform benefits the entire school community directly and the society indirectly. Through the educational experiments one engages in, he/she delves in self-exploration and discovery, learns to collaborate in teams for a common goal, and exercises to critically evaluate and reform their world. SEFED is both an educational system in itself and also a path towards a better education.

In the social contract of the education system, the community sends its children to the academic institutions to be educated- to know who they are and harness their inner potential for the construction of the social good. Through SEFED, students and other members of the academic environment become active contributors for the constructive process.

Both the reformation process and the reformed result, have no bound for their impacts. As education is deeply integrated with the world's welfare, economy and politics, the reform in education means a reform in all aspects  of the human life. Our numerous experiments address various questions in education, ranging from access, content, methodology and pedagogy, quality, inclusiveness and many more.

There are no limits within the education system that SEFED is bound to. Its numerous experiments address all aspects of the educational challenge. SEFED serves as a networking and incubating platform for educational experiments modeling the ideal form of education. External experiments can join the SEFED community and the SEFED team develops its own experiments as well.

All the challenges listed in this Solve application, in addition to other challenges, are addressed in our works. All experiments are autonomous and have full creative control over their realms of issues. Through SEFED, they all come together, supporting each other to realize the common goal of educational reform.

The SEFED team has already been established. The networking and incubation mechanism has launched. There are numerous educational experiments in SEFED that are at stages of concept, prototype, pilot, and even growth. In Ethiopia, SEFED has incubated and launched Open Pages children's space that works on experimenting the ideal education with children. Arts Incepting Reform (AIR), building efficient educational spaces (BEES) and Anbessa Curriculum are experiments on prototype stages. Other experiments like Meda and Elevating Connections are on pilot stages. With a continuously growing number of experiments joining the SEFED community, its impact and reach is increasing. SEFED, a networking and incubating platform for educational experiments, is the first of its kind in our country. We have now began working in Addis Ababa, the capital, in schools and communities. Over 15 experiments are incubated in SEFED to this date.

Reforming the performance and structure of the education system has been exclusive and elitist. It has remained far from the people and as a result became unable to bring a deep rooted change.

SEFED is a pioneer in establishing an education reforming platform which works together with all willing people who are concerned with the educational challenge. Its existence has encouraged many young people to express their ideas, experiment with their thoughts of education, and work for reform. As a result, many educational experiments are being developed by people and brought to SEFED for its incubation and partnership with other member experiments.

As the problem of the education system is vast and complex, the solution must be open to various perceptions and approaches. Hence, all the member experiments in SEFED an fully autonomous and able to work using their own philosophy and method. All experiments address different problems of the education, and together, they form a holistic reform.

SEFED has three level of service. The first is the group of people who are running and managing the educational experiments. SEFED helps these groups in incubating their experiments, supporting its growth and helping it horizontally network with other member experiments.

The second group is the people who are the beneficiaries of each experiments. These might be street kids who have no access to education, students who lack quality in education or refugees having no education that teaches in their languages.

The third groups are the people who will benefit from the output of the educational reform. With the education system being refined, the nation guarantees an efficient workforce, economic development and social welfare.

Currently, there are 15 educational experiments incubated at SEFED. All address different problem of education in different manners. On average, 15 people manage the educational experiment. In a year, we hope to reach 50+ educational experiments in Ethiopia. It is hard to quantitatively speak about SEFED's performance, because it deals with a reformation of a system and its performance. Our 5 years' projection shows a 200+ experiments and a reach in all parts of Ethiopia.

SEFED's educational experiments are not an end themselves. They, being models of a reformed system, suggest for the systematic education to adapt these experiments into its structure. Hence, the measurement of SEFED follows both qualitative and quantitative means.

The quantitative measurement lies in how many number of experiments are incubated in SEFED, number of participants in each experiments, and number of experiments making it past their first years. These numbers show the initiation, inclusiveness and sustainability of member projects.

The quantitative measurement has more to do with the impacts that the experiments have. The diversification of experiments, networking amongst member projects, and the enabling of broader positive impacts from others. These measurements indicate the holisticness, collaboration and catalytic ability of the SEFED community.

SEFED, a social Impact Project, has 0 full-time staff. All of its members are students and teachers volunteering for running the organization. Currently, without the experiments' team, the incubation and networking team has 60 volunteer staff.

The very foundational philosophy of true education is that all human beings are endowed with unique and ever reaching potential, and the purpose of education is to help people explore their inner selves and use their potential for the good.

In this light of perception, SEFED believes every member of our management and experiments' team is crucial for the construction of the reform. In this experimental work, our members, with diverse interests and backgrounds, help bring different ideas to the table. Our work never stops being refined, redesigned and reconfigured.

Moreover, the fact that our team members are students and teachers helps our works get a first-hand experience of the current system, its flaws and its design. Our members' profiles also serve a catalytic purpose of initiating a series of action amongst the other school communities. Our works deconstruct the narration of the students' impotence to change and reshape systems. SEFED is an example proving that the people have the power to create a suitable world for all.

The fourth sustainable development goal, concerning the quality of education, lists inclusiveness as a central component. True education, which SEFED aspires towards, must be inclusive of all race, age, sex, culture, language, geographical area and so on.

As an approach towards building an inclusive team, SEFED follows two means. The first approach id having a non-discriminatory and open recruitment policy. All people, having an agreement with SEFED's vision, are welcomed to join our experiments' community. This open policy ensures the inclusiveness of people of different race, age, sex, etc. The second approach is to include distant areas through digital communication. By building website and social media channels, our works and connections reach different geographic areas.

This digital platform also provides all people with an equitable access of making impacts. Our platforms and open recruitment policy, as much as possible, create a diverse range of volunteers and staff. Both, our policies and digital platforms help ensure the inclusiveness of a diverse membership with an equitable access for making impact.

We hear the solve community calling out for solvers from all around the world. We believe this community is filled with inspired and passionate people like us. Our team endures the challenges faced and the discouraging labels we get while working for the reform of the education system. Being part of solve is to get the affirmation we are looking for- the affirmation that though we are challenges, we are solving for humanity.

At Solve, SEFED will be able to find new partners for the realization of the reformation's struggle, financial and resource supports from the community, and a platform to showcase our works for the world.

'SEFED' is a flat and colorful tradition trey made from dried grass, in Ethiopia. It consists of different colors, all creating a beautiful pattern. With all the unique colors we will get at the solve community, partnering, a beautiful output can be carved.

The SEFED team hopes to elevate the financial literacy with the support it gets from solve. With many expenses, financial sustainability and management are weak sides of our team. We are all students and teachers with no prior financial background.

Supports revolving around business model development and legal establishment are also highly needed. Technical areas of running a social impact project are aspects on which we hope Solve will provide help.

Digital devices also lack at SEFED, holding us back from having efficient digital platforms. With help provided, the Open Pages team will surely overcome this challenge.

The main partnership we look for is to partner with MIT Solve. We believe SEFED's works align with Solve's. Though SEFED focuses on educational projects, it can learn much from Solve on how to incubate, support, and network projects.

Apart from this, we have no peculiar preference on further partnerships. We believe all partnerships can make a fruitful output, as long as they are nurtured and paid attention.

Education is a human right for all, refugees or not. In the Ethiopian community, there are numerous refugees from Syria, Eritrea, and other neighboring countries. All of these people have no schools teaching in their languages. Some do not have the money to send their kids to schools, even if there is a school for them. The degree of social inclusions and the amount of welcoming spaces for these communities is very low.

SEFED is a platform incubating, supporting, and networking educational experiments. Our educational experiments deal with questions of education's access, quality, content, method, inclusiveness and so on. SEFED also works on experiments trying to reach refugee communities through increasing access to education, social spaces and educational resources. Our experiments continuously assess and research educational challenges refugees face in Ethiopia and experiment with probable solutions that will tackle these problems.

What is more is that SEFED's experiments are administered by community members and students. Our works not only include refugees' issues but also give them the platform to change their unfair reality. In doing so, we enable them to exercise their creativity, believe in their change making ability, and collaborate for the realization of their aspired world.

SEFED is a platform for the reformation of the education system through the incubation, supporting and networking of educational experiments. Our educational experiments are carried out by the community members, providing an opportunity for the people to shape and reshape their world through collaboration and inclusive platform.

The reformation of education is a multi-faceted social action. In addition to create a quality and inclusive education, it is also an effort to realize the creation of sustainable cities and communities, with systems continuously improving and open-minded citizens critically engaging in their world.

Through a reformed education, the political, economic, and social aspects of a nation are ensured to improve. Creativity, critical thinking and solving-mindset, developed through this education, is able to change and overcome any problems faced.

Educational experiments in SEFED model this education system in mini scales, empower students and community members to responsibly intervene in their world, and contribute for the reformation of systematic education's accessibility, inclusiveness and quality.