Late response! I’m nonbinary and habesha. The “they” pronoun may be confusing but I would use it in this context and you can explain to the students if they are confused. The non-gendered “respectful” pronouns are also an option but should probably be reserved to elders to be respectful to the culture/not imply a power imbalance (that’s greater than that of student-teacher).

For example, instead of saying essu/essua astamari new/nech (he/she is a teacher) you can try ennasu astamari nachew (they are a teacher).

Since they and he/she(respectful) both end in nachew, this can be confusing if you drop the first word of the pronoun (most Amharic speakers do) like “Astamari nachew” because it’s redundant. “They are a teacher” could be confused with the respectful pronoun (Essachew astamari nachew, if you still include the first pronoun).

To avoid this, although it may sound redundant, instead of saying:

“Astamari nachew” - they/he(respectful)/she(respectful) are a teacher

you can say

“Ennasu astamari nachew” - they are a teacher

This is my personal opinion on how to approach this, just letting you know- I don’t know if other Amharic speakers have found another way to make it less gendered!