Brave students are a resource for the country: modalities of student participation in Tigray, Ethiopia

Government primary schools in Ethiopia offer an example of resource optimisation for the purpose of improving conditions and learning. Through positions of distributed leadership, students share responsibility for the learning and conduct of their peers. Their elected representatives are involved in school-level decision-making through the Parent Student Teacher Association, and all students participate in gim gima (public evaluation sessions) in which they report cases of misconduct amongst staff and students. Drawing on an ethnographic case study of Ketema Primary School, this paper explores these modalities of student participation. In illustrating how a school in a low-income country capitalises on its human resources while providing students with practical experiences of leadership, the paper offers insights on pedagogies for sustainable development.