About Us

One Planet International School is one of the few premium schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It was founded in 2006 with just over 30 kindergarten students. Adding one more class in each of the following years, the school now serves around 950 students from Kindergarten through Year 13.

One Planet believes it could best contribute to Ethiopia’s future with a holistic approach to education which focuses on both academic excellence and character development.

Why “One Planet”? We are all citizens of a common planet. No matter where we were born, what we look like, or what language we speak… we are all the same people. Our goal at One Planet is to recognize that we are all one people of one planet. We not only need to treat each other with dignity and respect, but we need to take care of our home, planet Earth!

A Social Enterprise

In establishing the school, One Planet’s goal was to create a profitable company with a social mission. Today this is better known as a social enterprise. Understanding that there was a growing demand for better schools, it aimed to provide an affordable, high-quality international-standard education which balanced academic excellence with character education in a non-denominational setting. At the same time, One Planet created a model which allows it to provide promising yet disadvantaged students with scholarships.

Mission and Vision

Mission ::
To gently nurture and unravel the unique potential hidden in every child, and to foster in him/her a burning desire to learn and to use his/her unique talents to passionately serve humanity.

Vision ::Provide a model for educational excellence, where all students achieve their potential and actively contribute to our local and global communities.

Goal of Education

Education should strive to develop an integrated set of capabilities—academic/ technical, artistic, social-emotional, physical and moral—so that individuals can lead lives with meaning and become agents of positive social change. Furthermore, One Planet believes that every child has unique potentialities latent within them, and the role of the educator is to discover and develop those talents.
Therefore, the goal of education at One Planet is to unravel the unique potential hidden in every child and to create a desire in that child to use their specific talents in service to humanity.

  • Unraveling the unique potentials hidden in every child. We believe that each student has latent potentialities hidden within them. The role of the educator is not to fill the child with knowledge, but to explore the depths of the child to help him or her discover and then develop their unique talents.

Addressing all components of an education. True education must address all components of a child’s development. Therefore, One Planet strives to address the academic/ technical, artistic, social-emotional, physical and moral/character building components of education. While we believe that spiritual education is also an essential component of a child’s education, we believe this is a matter that should be left to the parents in the manner that they see fit, and will not be addressed by One Planet.

Excellence in all things. One Planet believes that all children should be given the opportunity to master every kind of learning and to become skilled in every art. Children should be given the expectation of achieving excellence in all branches of learning, sciences and art.

Building capacity for a life of service. At One Planet, we believe that the ultimate goal of education is realized when children grow up to apply their knowledge, skills, and unique talents towards the betterment of the world in the spirit of sacrificial service to humanity

Fundamental Beliefs

Core Values:   One Planet is founded on a set of core values that underscore how teachers are hired and trained, how the curriculum is developed, how the school is built, and how major decisions regarding the policy, strategy, and direction of the school are made.  These core values include the following:

The oneness of mankind. There is only one human race. Prejudice—whether based on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or social background—must be overcome if humanity is to create a peaceful and just global society.

Women and men are equal. Men and women are as the wings of a bird. Unless both wings are equally developed, the bird will not be able to fly. Similarly, if the world of women is not equal to the world of men, true human progress and the transformation of society will be unattainable. The education of girls is particularly important because, although both parents have responsibilities for the rearing of children, it is through educated mothers that the benefits of knowledge can be most effectively diffused throughout society.

All human beings are created noble. All people are created noble, regardless of their social and economic status, religion, race, ethnicity, or gender, and should be treated with dignity and respect.

One Planet is centered on the notion of service. The founders created One Planet out of a desire to serve. We believe that creating a desire in children to serve others, combined with excellence in academic achievement, is a formula for a better future for the planet.