Trustee Chairman slams Nepal education statistics!

We all probably know the quote about " .... lies, damn lies and statistics" and this can certainly be applied to some of the general statistics floating around about Nepal's educational performance at the moment. As initial background Nepal has signed up to the UN's Millenium Development Goals one of which is Universal Primary Education by 2015. This means that the country is supposed to achieve 100% of children taking (and completing) primary education by 2015. The figures put out by the government over the past couple of years has shown a steady increase where last year it was quoted as 94.9%, a long way forward from the initial 80% or so. The problem however is that this overall figure hides some disturbing facts and here are a few:

1. Nepal female literacy 54%, male literacy 81% 
2. Secondary education female 29%, male secondary education 53% 
3. Tarai region Dalit caste female literacy 17%, male literacy 48% 
4. Tarai region Dalit caste female secondary education 5%, male secondary education 19% 

 So, when you analyse deeper the overall progress figure of 94.9% this probably means nothing more than that this is the % of children who enrol at primary school. Of course it tells us nothing about the ever present male-female divide, regional differences or most importantly the serious disadvantage felt by Dalits as a caste group. We are interested in these figures for two reasons. Firstly the children attending our 6 schools in Kathmandu are mostly Dalits and we are therefore strengthened in our resolve to help this massively underprivileged group of children, born into poverty and discrimination, destined for nothing and nowhere. Secondly the Nepalese government's so called strategy to assist this group is so short sighted to be laughable. They seem to think that scholarships for boys and girls is the answer, pay them all around £3 or so each to buy a school uniform and stationery and this will solve the problem. I don't think I have ever heard anything so outrageous and destined to fail. Put £3 in a Dalit's hand and most of them will buy milk and food for their infant children! Can you blame them? Why can't the government just supply the schools with stationery just as we at Nepal Schools Aid do? What is the point of a school uniform when you don't have a pen, a pencil, a textbook? Why bother to come to school at all when it's so mind numbingly boring sitting rigidly at a desk listening to a teacher drone on about Pythagoras, Queen Victoria or English past tense verbs? Where is the child centred learning, where is the creativity, the play? When will this blasted government and the foreign aid agencies start listening to a different strategy to transform the education system instead of pouring money down the drain?

A little local publicity

In the last three years since foundation Nepal Schools Aid has sought very little publicity in it's "home area" preferring most of the media attention to be wherever volunteer work was being done, such as in South Cumbria or Kathmandu itself. However the local press in Gloucestershire got wind of our work and asked for an interview and article describing our background and work and today this has been published in the Wiltshire & Gloucestershire Standard newspaper. The full article is available on the web here so just click on the link to read. The article describes our history, Champa's background, our objective and our regular work so if you are interested in an "archaeological piece" just click on the link.

Himalaya School Goes Environmental!

A group of Year 7 students and teachers from Himalaya Secondary School recently took part in a field trip to the temple of Ichangu Narayan. This temple is situated about 3km from Swayambhu just outside the Ring Road from the Buddha Park. The existing temple was built in the 1700's as far as I can establish but stands on a site where the original shrine dates back to around 1200 AD. 

The main purpose of the trip seems to have been related to the environment which is a very good topic for schools in Kathmandu with the extremely poor standards of water, hygiene and sanitation everywhere to be seen. The children and staff took part in a clean-up of the temple area and also provided some food and drinks for the young orphaned children in the local Children's Development Centre.

The photographs show some of their activities and we are pleased to see the teachers involved in the cleaning too which is not so common in Nepal. Too often many will stand back and let others do the work and this is a good example of some of the values we will be trying to promote in our April programme of training. (Respect and Cooperation).

Teacher training in Nepal …... ready to go!

Only two months to go now before the 2011 NSA Academy programme of teacher training is launched in Kathmandu. All materials are ready after months of preparation by volunteer teachers from South Cumbria and NSA staff and have been sent to Nepal for the lengthy process of printing and binding, which considering they are currently experiencing 14 hours per day of power cuts will take some time!

The 2011 programme has four key elements to it which are:

1. Two days of training on Educational Psychology
2. Two days of training on Teaching Tools & Techniques
3. Two days of training on Subject Teaching (Maths and English)
4. Two days of training on Values & Ethics

As many of you will know our approach is initially to train the 40 best English speaking teachers from our 6 schools on this programme, which is then followed up by our Nepalese Tutors who convert the programme into Nepali and deliver it to the remaining 80 or so teachers over a 6 month period. In addition each year we invite delegates from Nepal's Ministry of Education to attend as part of our agreement at national level to help them develop teacher training nationwide.

If anyone would like to know more about our programme or how you might help with donations please contact us info@nepalschoolsaid.co.uk or visit our main website www.nepalschoolsaid.co.uk