ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the literacy practices of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC) schools and the methods employed in teaching how to read and write based on the field visits made to two well-known monasteries in South Gondar region of northern Ethiopia. The EOTC has been the center of learning for the past 16th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, such an indigenous educational system was replaced by the western modern education with little or no effort in bridging the transition. The majority of the writers who described the church education system held the view that the method of teaching in these schools is invariably based on memorization or rote learning. Despite such uncritical assessment, the early reading instructions and the strategies employed in teaching how to read and write have never been methodically investigated. The House of Reading, which is the first stage of the school system, focuses on the development of skills that enables the student to read and write. Learning to read at the House of Reading takes place in four successive stages which are conveniently structured to develop reading and writing skills. Reading instructions in these schools uniquely include an efficiently embedded method of teaching the prosodic features of the language, a lesson to be drawn by the modern schools of today.
