The BIG Questions

We have written over many days about the recent work with all our schools in Kathmandu, and now back in the UK, we can reflect on a busy month and recognise the successes, the level of motivation and the energy we have left behind us in 7 schools. Teachers are now genuinely questioning their own competence, skill levels and teaching processes as well as classroom layouts, best use of resources, the curriculum and much more. In organisational psychology terminology we would now say that "there has been a great deal of unfreezing leaving everyone in an advanced state of readiness for personal change".

This has led us to ponder a number of significant BIG questions we need to answer before we move to the next phase of our work so in the true spirit of delegation and ownership we have posed the list below to our newly formed Kathmandu Committee and will post up their considered response when it arrives:

1. What should we do with Sramik school? They are so far behind other schools intellectually, in leadership, in English and in their actions?
2. How can we make sure that all schools understand how strict we will be with our inspections in October to identify who most qualifies for computers? 
3. How do we get the Heads and individual teachers motivated to develop their English language skills themselves through reading clubs, speaking clubs, book clubs? Without it we will have difficulty in delivering more advanced training.
4. How do we get all schools developing their classroom environments physically to become more child centred? Paint, chairs, tables, cushions, chairs?
5. How do we get all schools to understand the application and the benefits of implementing the British Council's Global Schools Partnership programme?
6. Is NSA ready to employ full time Tutors on a good salary who work for us 100% of the time as resource persons and working in ALL schools?

One laptop per child?

Today we visited a small village school in a lovely remote setting several miles outside Patan. Our purpose was to view a class using the laptops we are considering purchasing and we were accompanied by Rajeev from OLE who explained everything to us during the visit. We observed an English lesson on Countable and Uncountable Nouns, whatever they are, but that's the Nepali curriculum for you. Enjoy the pictures:

“It's not the government's responsibility …...”

My headline today is a quote from a report in Sunday's Himalayan Times in Kathmandu. Has Education Become An Industry? It beggars belief that this quote comes from Mahashram Sharma, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Education! The full quote is as follows: “The government is monitoring government schools but has not been effective as it is not only the sole responsibility of the government. Other bodies like schools management, parents and District Education Office are also accountable. Due to the increase in the number of schools and an absence of invigilators it is impossible to monitor it”. 

The report and the quote/response from the Joint Secretary leads me to suggest that he and his department need a little education themselves in the difference between Implementation and Regulation. It is a failure of the latter within and across financial institutions that has led to the economic crises around the world and undoubtedly it is a lack of focused regulation that is partly to blame for the utter mess in which Nepal's education system finds itself. The outstanding requirement is that the school management committees, Head Teachers and indeed the parent groups within communities are accountable for implementing the government's education policies and practices. The accountability for regulation including oversight is solely on the shoulders of government and if Mr Sharma doesn't recognise this then he is no fit person to be in such a lofty position. In a wider sense the article highlights “the battleground” of education in which the combatants are private schools, government schools, teachers, unions, student unions, guardian's association and others, all taking conflicting stands on how the system should be developed or moved forward. Unfortunately “the stakeholders” as they are described are nothing more that groups with unmitigated self interest with no selfless interest in quality education or the children of Nepal. They argue with each other over pay, fees, status, book supply, and a host of other issues absolutely irrelevant to education when the system is riddled with outmoded teaching practices, assessment strategies focused on remembering rather than understanding and applying, and a curriculum which neither flows within subjects nor has much connection with reality. To support my latter assertion today I visited one of the schools assisted by my organisation (Nepal Schools Aid) after just having completed 8 days training in child centred learning for 40 government teachers. One of our best teachers was asking me about improving English Language teaching at class 1 & 2 levels. The curriculum and it's assessment approach drives these teachers to deliver rote classes and I asked her to read me a paragraph from a magazine I had. Her English is exceptionally good and she read it word perfect with no problems of accent or pronunciation. I then asked her to find me three nouns, two pronouns, and two prepositions from the paragraph. To say that she was embarrassed was an understatement, but I told her that I doubted that many people (children and adults) could have analysed the paragraph grammatically either though they can speak perfect English! To me this is the hub of the problem, a complete disconnection between curriculum and the demands of the real world. Until the Ministry understands this and gets some real focused help from the likes of DFID who seem to think that building a school is more important than transformation of the education system, policies, concepts and content, there will be NO improvement in the mess that is Nepal's education system.

The real test begins!

One phase ends, another one starts which in this case is some perception tests on class 4 and class 5 children in our schools. Having completed 8 days of training we are rapidly conducting two perception tests on cohorts of children which focus on their views on learning and quality education. The same cohort will be retested in September to see if changes in teaching style have changed perceptions amongst the children. We have given this work as a project to one of our Tutors, Bashu, and he made a good job today of administering the tests in his own school, Bal Bigyan, before moving on to repeat them in Bal Vinod school. The pictures tell today's story:

They think it's all over ....... it is now!

Once again the pictures can tell the story of the closing ceremony at our teacher training conference. The energy levels and motivation were extraordinarily high after 7 long days of training as we gave some final messages, presented certificates, awarded resources as prizes based on a school's efforts, and finally promoted one of our Tutors to be a Senior Tutor and for all to work towards it or being THE Principal Tutor. The reward? A one month trip to the UK for training.

The audience listens

The Chairman speaks

Certificates for all

Prizes for some

The shock of promotion

The final message

P4C Comes to Kathmandu

The final day of our programme and one of the most important to us. Ever since we read Sujeev Shakya's book Unleashing Nepal, we have searched for and planned for some way to introduce ethics and values into the teaching of our schools. The search ended when we discovered the technique of P4C and met the UK organisation SAPERE. Over a week ago we ran a workshop on Values to introduce the concept at a personal and school level. Yesterday we ran a workshop on P4C to train the teachers in the practical process to use with children. Essentially a non directive facilitation technique P4C uses various stimuli such as images/photos, objects, stories, games to promote a discussion amongst a group of children. The stimuli are chosen to elicit philosophical questions particularly in addition to factual ones. One particular session involved a photo of some garbage/rubbish, a hot topic in Kathmandu and the session developed from the practical aspects of recycling and creating more dumping sites to eventually a REAL P4C session about values such as respect for the environment, personal responsibility, citizenship and more such concepts. At this point the whole tone of the discussion became quite different, much more reflective, more sombre even but not depressing. Just a stark realisation that it was in their own hands to solve! Soon it was time for them to "have a go" at facilitating a session and a combination of Anil and Babita did exceptionally well in being the first volunteers probably to EVER run a P4C session in Nepal.

Stone, paper, scissors across a fun day

If I have to walk into a classroom in one of our schools once more to find bare walls, no posters, mobiles, learning aids I will scream so loud you will hear me in Cumbria! Yesterday's workshop on learning resources was interesting, informative, practical and fun and well run by Mel and Jen. So, all you Nepali teachers ..... just go and DO IT!

Problem solving skills for Nepal Government Ministers launched!

The photos tell the story of a hilarious workshop run by Pete and Chris, mostly outdoors. Fun, yes, but extremely important too and well linked to many concepts in educational psychology.

Making connections

We are now five days into the programme with two to go, today was a pair of whole days workshops on English Language and Maths. It was also a day in which there was a change in tone, tempo and activity. The English workshop got the delegates early into practical sessions based on speaking and listening in English using stories and the message/moral of the story as discussion points. In the Maths workshop the whole day was based around the PCAME technique with lots and lots of practical sessions for the classroom including playing fizz buzz, throwing dice, analysing the Premiership Football league table and lots more. And at a really practical level in the Maths workshop the delegates were introduced to using a simple laminated sheet of white A4 paper with a felt tip pen as a personal whiteboard. High technology indeed! One of the most pleasing things though was the connections that are starting to be made such as delegates talking about the structure of potential lesson plans during the English session and Maths delegates using the Constructivist pyramid (Bloom's Taxonomy) to identify steps such as remembering, understanding, and applying. I think we are starting to get somewhere!

Is there anybody there?

Despite the hard work and efforts of everyone concerned with our programme in Kathmandu we don't seem to be getting many (any!) comments except from The Big Miss. We all need a bit of response and motivation from time to time, so do post up any comments or messages, we would really appreciate it whether you are back in the UK, here in Kathmandu, or somewhere else in the galaxy.

Teaching Techniques programme begins

After the well earned rest of Nepal's New Year's day in which our merry band toured central Kathmandu streets and Thamel, the teacher training programme started again with a new focus on Teaching Tools & Techniques. The day comprised two half day workshops on Lesson Planning and Thinking Skills, neither being "natural topics" for Nepalese teachers. Thinking Skills is virtually something that they seem to expect children to park at home while they are talked at for 40 min sessions at a time each day in school! On the other hand Lesson Planning is a totally alien concept since it requires looking ahead! The importance of Lesson Planning to NSA was outlined by Janice our Educational Advisor several months ago when she pointed out that it was the main tool that could be used to focus everything else being learned on a daily basis. In other words provided we designed a lesson plan pro forma in a way that required teachers to THINK about lesson objectives, startup, activities, (including resources), a plenary to summarise and assessment then there could be no escape from doing things in a child centred way. Jenny and Chris delivered exactly this message with two groups of 20 teachers, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, practicing the building of a lesson plan across the session. Head teachers have now been tasked with implementing lesson planning thoroughly in their schools and this will be inspected in September as part of the decision making process as to which schools "win" the computers.

Educational Psychology Rules OK!

Two days of educational psychology training concluded today and have given our teachers a basic understanding of some of the concepts associated with child development. These concepts have included development stages, child diversity, learning processes, motivation, assessment strategies all of which should underpin teaching at primary level. 

We now have a one day break before launching the two day programme on Teaching Tools & Techniques on Friday. Tomorrow is Nepal's New Years Day with the date being Baisak 1, 2068.

Teacher Capability programme 2011 formally opens

Well, after much preparation and organisation the Educational Psychology course within our programme kicked off on Tuesday morning. The pictures can tell the story, more details on Wednesday:

Alien Adventures in Kathmandu

There are times to laugh and times to cry and I spent a few minutes laughing at a group of Nepali teachers participating in a p4c session during yesterday's workshop on Values. Based on Jason Buckley's alien adventures series all they had to do was to cooperate and lower the tent pole to the floor.

Click to view video

Today I'm wondering what I have let myself in for!!!

The NSA Academy kicks off with a Values focus

Today was the first day of our teacher training programme although the grand opening is not until Tuesday. “Values” was the workshop topic and overall is the theme for the NSA 2011 programme. Our framework of Quality Education has Ethics & Values at it's core since we strongly believe that Nepalese education at primary level needs a strong dose of “morality” in the light of recent political events across the nation. The basis of the workshop was a classical psychologist's view that values drives behaviour as well as the reverse that inferences about values can be made from observed behaviour. Across the day, as well as a number of inputs on values definitions and types there were lots of exercises and activities in which our teachers identified their own values, associated behaviours, identified components of citizenship in their schools and the values they wish to teach. One extremely funny exercise was an episode from Jason Buckley's series of Alien Adventures based on a crash landed spaceship and the use of a helium pipe to breathe in a threatening atmosphere. I am grateful to Jason for sharing this activity with me and for teaching me all I know about P4C! In general this was an excellent day and is showing just how much progress our schools have made. The thought of trying to have run this session three years or even two years ago is quite frightening, but the Head teachers have gone away today with an enthusiasm and commitment to repeat all the exercises with their non English speaking staff immediately. The follow up to this session will occur on 19th April when everyone will be taught the process of P4C to begin introducing Values education in their schools.

NSA meeting sets the tone for 2011

We had been planning, re-planning and re-re-planning this meeting for months. The purpose was always clear; “Clarify the year's objectives, communicate the details of the training programme, motivate sufficiently to encourage implementation over the next 6 months.” The means to achieve that purpose was being adapted right up to the last minute on Wednesday afternoon with agenda changes, discussion point changes and who says what changes. It was finalised by 2.30pm as the meeting began at 3.00pm! Champa opened the meeting which was attended by Head Teachers, School Committee chairmen, teachers and our tutors. She set the scene as to the meetings direction and the issues facing us for 2011. Brian then took over and guided the meeting in smaller groups through the forthcoming training programme, the tutor workshops schedule for the summer, the student testing schedule, the implementation of lesson planning, child centred teaching and the P4C process. The key message was that the time has come for evidence of progress in each school and that a serious schools inspection will be carried out in September to determine future and continuing membership of NSA. This should not be misread, we will not punish any lack of achievement, only a lack of effort. The rewards could be VERY high, but the consequences of non implementation of some key action points could be very serious. They HAVE to understand that we have now reached the point where no progress equals no donors equals no money equals no programme. Simples! Overall the response was very positive both as to the content of this years programme over the next 6 months as well as all the implementation plans and inspections. I think we have reached a stage where there is a high degree of trust and faith in what we do which is very motivational for us too. Tomorrow is the first day of the full programme with a workshop of Values in education. The rest of the programme continues on Tuesday with a two day course on educational psychology. More tomorrow.

Early Days In Kathmandu 2011

We have been in Kathmandu 4 days now and been busy from getting off the plane. Those following behind us will be pleased to know that things seem to have changed at the airport it taking less than 10 minutes to get baggage and through security once the visa had been sorted! Most of our time since then has been spent in logistics and organising for the essential elements of our work which starts Wednesday with a meeting of Head Teachers and School Management Committee, continues on Friday with a teacher workshop on Values & Ethics, then the continuation of the main programme on Tuesday 12th April after the UK teachers arrive. On Saturday we met with our two Nepali Tutors and introduced them to the formalities of performance management with their first ever appraisal meetings. This was conducted in the classical way with a balanced combination of performance review and performance planning. We then had a further planning meeting with them and Dr Madan our Operations Director to go through the training programme and it's subsequent follow up and implementation across the year. During this meeting we presented them with their new netbooks which were purchased with donations received from the children of Haverigg School and Len & Hazel Stoneman, the parents of one of Haverigg's teachers. On Sunday we had a long meeting with a freelance journalist who recently wrote an article on the shambolic state of Nepal's education system and we are hopeful he will write some articles on our work and especially the processes we are using to transform our schools. On Monday a training session was run for the Tutors to familiarise them with their new netbooks, especially since they are run on Linux as the operating system instead of Windows. At this time they were also given some materials to read about P4C in advance of the upcoming training next week since we felt they needed a head start before the programme commenced. We gave them a copy of the P4C Pocketbook which was donated in a batch of 40 by Jason Buckley, and also the Level 1 P4C course manual donated by Lizzy Lewis from the SAPERE organisation in the UK. The importance of these two latter donations will become apparent as our programme progresses and we write in more detail. Today is Tuesday and we will be visiting three of our schools to discuss some issues about the Global Schools Partnership links with UK schools. More blogging on Thursday after the management meeting.