Nepal continues to suffer

Image by izahorsky via Flickr

In the middle of all our scurrying around schools and offices it's easy to forget that Nepal is still in the throes of a political crisis. Without boring everyone to death with the full background our regular readers will remember that the country is ruled by a 21 party coalition which currently excludes the Maoists who are the largest party with 30% + of the vote. Last April the Maoists were in power but a constitutional crisis led to their resignation from government and our leaving the country quickly in the face of a possible military coup.
Since then the Maoists have been a thorn in the side of government with daily blockages of parliament. Now they have announced a 12 day programme of protests using their youth organisation the Young Communist League (YCL). Starting on November 1st through to November 12th they have organised a schedule involving a torchlight procession, blockage of parliament, street protests, rallies, blockage of municipal offices and a blockade of the airport on 10th November, one day before we travel home!
Marvellous!

Videos and visions

Just back from another visit to Bal Bigyan school, initially as part of our plan to make a number of educational videos for some schools in the UK. The plan includes four specific videos related to Buddhism, Shopping, Schools and Kathmandu Central. Today's video included a "tour" around the school and a specific maths class taken by Bashu our sponsored teacher.
In addition we had an informal more relaxed chat with the Headmaster about his vision and plans for the school. He has been teaching at the school for 20 years now and cares passionately about it's performance. Specifically he has a vision to make the school the best in the district to which the permanent population will send their children and this includes:
1. Increasing the number of children attending, a big issue in Nepal
2. Enhancing the quality of education with a shift to child centred teaching as opposed to teacher centred
3. Building a new extension to the current school on their existing land which would allow them to include classes up to year 10 therefore becoming a secondary school.
In the case of this latter element the initial costings for the two storey extension are for about £20,000 of which they currently have found £3000.

 

When a PhD in chemistry comes in handy .....

Yesterday paid a short visit to our fifth supported school, Himalaya Secondary School in the centre of Kathmandu. This school is different from our others in that we support only 65 children out of the full 300 since these are the poorest with little or no personal support from anywhere else. The Head of the school takes in this many impoverished children in additional to those from the permanent community.
During our visit we entered a science class, Year 8, and I just couldn't resist having a go. These kids all spoke good English which was the medium used for their science lessons, which now includes a session on the periodic table of the elements from Dr B! (Sorry about the blurry picture, it was taken by the regular teacher who was presumably having a good laugh!)

A new partnership?

We have spent most of today with Yogendra Chitraker, Director ECCA, and one of his staff Sidhu visiting three schools they provide support to in Patan together with our own two schools also in Patan. Basically ECCA are a large Nepalese NGO who develop schools through helping them to network better within their own community and assisting them to set up nature and environment clubs and studies within the school.
Essentially we have much to gain by working together at no cost to each other. ECCA have 2000 "counsellors" employed around Nepal helping the poorest schools to achieve more through self motivation and we have realised today just how much we can work together without stepping on each others toes. Initially they will take Sramik and Bal Bigyan schools under their wing to help them maximise their potential withing their respective communities.
On our part we have access to a different network of professional teachers and volunteers from the UK and again we can work together to maximise efforts. For example a group of teachers from the UK could come to Nepal to run a skills programme attended by groups of their counsellors who in turn pass it on across the whole of Nepal!
More next week, its back to videoing tomorrow.

Tihar

Image via Wikipedia

Today is the last day of Tihar, or Diwali the festival of light as it is known in India. Comprising five days of fireworks, lit up buildings, feasting, and a series of special days to worship/pay respect to crows, dogs, cows, ones self and brothers.
Towards the end of this festival is Nepal Sambat, which in the Nepali calendar is New Year's Day in the year 1130. That was yesterday and in central Kathmandu was celebrated by the Newar people with a variety of programmes of music, dancing and feasting.
Today is Bhaia Tikka, or brother's day in which sisters respect their brothers with a small puja (religious ceremony/blessing) and food. In turn the brothers give their sisters a gift. We will be visiting one of Champa's sisters houses today for this event which according to the astrologers cannot take place until after 11.53 this morning.
On the schools work front it's back to work tomorrow with the schools opening again after the break. We have a visit scheduled with the help of our friends at ECCA, the education NGO, to a government school they have helped to influence the local municipality and is therefore now thriving. It should be a good benchmark for us and we will write up news of that visit tomorrow.

The last school

Kesh Chandra school in central Kathmandu was visited today, its the smallest school we support with around 100 pupils. As usual they are the children of migrant or itinerant workers so are extremely isolated from the permanent community.
They are housed in a community group owned building connected to a temple area and the owners want them out. Mind you, they have been trying for 20 years and not succeeded. However they have made life extremely uncomfortable for the school with a refusal to allow the connection of running water to the site or the building of a toilet.
Their needs apart from this are virtually identical to the three other schools we have visited and a few patterns are emerging. I will spend a few days thinking about all the data we have collected and create a summary report posted here for those who are interested.
So, at 1pm today, temperature 89 degrees, Champa and I ended a fairly intense three days of questions, questions, questions. I'm not sure of the UK equivalent but we have basically carried out an assessment on the management and teaching of four schools plus held a lengthy meeting with people connected to the Nepal Ministry of Education. To celebrate we dragged ourselves off to the renowned Fire & Ice restaurant for pizza and ice cream. The festival of Tihar starts tomorrow so it's a few days of relaxing and family socialising before we start again. Tomorrow it's barbecue night at Dwarika's to thank our family for all their organising of Sharon's wedding.

Education, education, education!

This afternoon's meeting was with Dr Chitraker (Chairman of ECCA) and Mrs Shrestha, the recent Under Secretary for Education. For our non regular readers, ECCA are the organisation who helped us to run the 5 day training programme on Water & Sanitation Education for 12 teachers in our schools. Unfortunately Dr Poudel, the current Under Secretary was called away to the Ministry so we are arranging a further meeting with him.
Our primary objectives were to develop understanding of the education system in Nepal and to seek influence to facilitate further State aid for our schools.
We spent some time outlining our background, our broad strategy and our current processes before making a summary of what we see our schools receiving and ..... what they appear to NOT be receiving from the State.
Much to our amazement Dr Chitraker explained that it was NOT the government's fault if the schools weren't receiving their full dues!! But, he explained that in Nepal the onus is on the schools to directly seek out government support based on a clear understanding of what they are entitled to. So, part of what ECCA do is to "educate" school heads about how to engage with government and work their way through Nepal's labyrinthine bureaucracy!!!! Amazing.
But, he immediately offered to show us some schools as examples who they have helped to help themselves AND to begin a programme of educating the Heads in our schools to do the same.
In addition we talked at some length about professional development for teachers and that despite having a National Teacher Development Centre outside Kathmandu and having 30 Regional Centre, the teacher development programme is "a pile of crap"! Well, Mrs Shrestha didn't actually say that but that was what she meant.
So, here's a possible deal: Can WE help to facilitate some UK Heads/teachers, maybe backed by their Education Authority, who would like to work on such a programme?
Are you there Janice, Nerissa, Stella? Anybody on Skype?

Words fail me ....... almost.

This morning's visit was to Bal Kalyan school in Balaju, twinned with Hook Norton school in Oxfordshire. Pupils are from the shanty town community along the river banks at Balaju which means these children are living in tin roofed shacks with the chickens, ducks, goats and pigs. The photo here is from above the township but doesn't do it justice. The next time I visit after the Tihar festival some of the community have invited us for a full tour which we were very pleased to receive, and to accept.
The school building was provided by a combination of funding from the township people themselves, the Municipality, and the Coca Cola corporation who have a bottling plant close by. Our sponsored teacher here is KKrishna Thapa, a civil engineering graduate who is from the township but who wants to teach. We had a very thorough meeting with the Head teacher (Mahdav), Krishna as well as four members of the management committee and we will report on our findings later as a summary with the other schools.
Once we had finished the meeting we were given a tour of the school to each of the year groups where we were given flower garlands, drawings and personally created poems and songs which told of the children's gratitude for our support. It was quite overcoming really and "got worse" when Krishna decided to tell each class about Champa being at one time the most educated woman from Nepal and the first Nepali woman to gain a PhD. The effect was remarkable and the teachers have no doubt that this will be a real inspiration to these children.
As a parting shot we encouraged Krishna to work with Bashu in creating a UK studies syllabus so, Hook Norton ......... you may get some questions and requests by email!
Must dash as we have 30 mins before our meeting with two people from Ministry of Education. Champa is worried I'll blow my stack .... more later today.

Here we go!

Arrived, ate, slept, and slept, and slept. That's the first time I have not slept a wink overnight to Kathmandu but also the fastest I have ever got through Kathmandu airport from visa control to baggage collect to car park. 20 minutes ..... yes Andy, 20 minutes.
Two hours later it was just like someone had flicked a switch at 6pm and I didn't wake up till 5 am.
We have created a fast start schedule with visits to four of our schools scheduled for the first three days. Our purpose is to conduct a thorough fact find on the school's situation to help us plan future strategies. Today we have visited two schools in Patan, both just off the royal (Durbar) square. Patan is an ancient city, one of the three cities of the Kathmandu valley and the home of the original kings of the Malla dynasty. Mostly renowned for it's teracotta architecture and brass statues.
Our first visit was to Sramik school where Rajendra is our sponsored teacher. The building is community owned, very dark and with virtually no facilities. The pupils are NOT from the "local" community who send their children out of the area to better schools. So the pupils are the classic low caste children from migrant or domestic workers mostly. They have been trying for 10 years to get access to land so as to create a purpose built school! We will certainly try to help with our own influence if we can. The teachers are dedicated but struggling. NONE of them have any teacher training in the sense we would understand it, maybe we can help here too.
Our second visit was to Bal Bigyan school where Bashu is our sponsored teacher. Chalk and cheese when compared with Sramik. They have a purpose built school funded by the local community but surprisingly they also send their own children elsewhere. Well educated teachers, a switched on head teacher are both features of this school. Since we began supporting them their roll has increased by 65 children and each year they hold an Open Day to advertise the fact that they are supported by a UK charity who provide ........
The sponsored teacher Bashu has taken up the challenge of creating a UK Studies programme to add to the curriculum so Janice you can expect some emails seeking information.

That's enough for today. Tomorrow we visit the Bal Kalyan school in the Balaju district where Krishna is our sponsored teacher. Then in the afternoon we have a meeting with Mrs Laxmi Shrestha who was the previous Under Secretary of State for Education. The current Education Secretary we will meet with in about a week's time after the Tihar festival.
It's Carlsberg O'clock, enough!

Adopted by Shakespeare!

Well, Shakespeare House at Beechen Cliff School, Bath that is! This is their logo on the left, a boys school with a Maths teacher who was a friend of our son Mike and who played a major part in our fundraising group, Mike's Appeal.
Lee is the Head of the newly created Shakespeare House with around 180 boys from all years and part of their extra curricular activity includes some charitable work. They have decided to adopt ourselves together with Julian House, a local hospice for single men and women. Any funds raised will be shared between ourselves and Julian House (40% each) with 20% used for any needs arising within Shakespeare itself.
However, it's not just about the money, as I told these boys on my visit yesterday. There are learning opportunities and adventure opportunities by associating with ourselves and judging by some of the enthusiasm afterwards it wont be long before Nepal is a popular Google search topic along with the terms "himalaya, whitewater rafting, mountain biking, Buddhism ......"

A longer visit this time?

Image by andyw23 via Flickr

Well, here we go again, off to Kathmandu next Sunday for a month's work in and around our five schools. As our regular readers will know our last attempt in May ended up with a hasty retreat back home in the face of a potential military coup. That risk has now faded but there is till political upheaval creating a level of instability that just wouldn't be tolerated here. Anyway, we're off so we will just have to put up with it.
We have an enormous amount of work to do which can best be described as a major fact finding mission. We have been supporting these schools for 2 full years now and have seen our impact and achievement steadily growing. However the time has now come to "benchmark" these five schools against a range of standards (all Nepali) so as to judge what we do next to help them.
First, we have a round of formal meetings with each school to determine issues around school resources, infrastructure, community support, direction/leadership etc. Second, we have meetings fixed with the current and previous under secretaries from the Ministry of Education. Third, we intend to explore facilities and resources available to develop our schools professionally such as The British Council in Kathmandu and to provide some further professional training during our visit.
Plenty to do, as well as the Tihar/Diwali festival for a week to enjoy with our family. So, all news can be followed on a daily basis via this blog.