Sujeev Shakya to open Teacher Development programme.

Only four weeks to our departure for Kathmandu and the launching of our Teacher Development programme on March 30th.
Preparation has been hectic with the intellectual work on the sessions and materials in the UK combined with the logistical organisation in Nepal. At times the skills required to herd cats would seem like child’s play!
Although this is our first programme we are determined to give it the “big bang” treatment, not least in our striving for media attention, support from corporate Nepal and the political backing of the Nepali Ministry of Education. So, we have asked and received a positive response from Sujeev Shakya to inaugurate our programme on 30th March.

Sujeev first came to our attention via his book Unleashing Nepal a forthright look at Nepal’s history of economic woes, it’s catalogue of aid cock-ups but with a challenging prescription of what needs to be done to catapult Nepal into the 21st Century. He is not only an author but also the Chairman of the Nepal Economic Forum and the CEO of Beed Management. In his spare time he writes a fortnightly article for Nepali Times, always humorous, often scathingly sharp towards some section of Nepali society. You can read more about him by clicking on http://www.sujeevshakya.com/

The information gap & NGO corruption

If there’s anything we pride ourselves on at Nepal Schools Aid it’s our integrity. We say what we mean, we mean what we say, we are honest, account for every penny we spend and focus 95% of our spending on our primary goal “educational support for the children of Nepal”. We guard our brand name and will not let anyone use it or do things in our name in Kathmandu. We have an exacting covenant with our donors in that they know exactly where their money will be spent.
So why are we telling you all this? Well, an article in the Nepali press written by a renowned social commentator, Sushma Joshi, has exposed some of the “misappropriation” of funds between donors, NGOs/charities and Government.It makes for interesting reading and gives food for thought in to why billions £ has been poured into Nepal but in many cases to little or no effect.

Click here to read it.

School Sector Reform Plan 2009-2015

Just over a month to go now and we will be off to Kathmandu to deliver the teacher training programme we have developed jointly with Haverigg Primary School. For those of you not regular readers we have two courses, for teachers "Creating a learning environment" and for Head teachers "Managing change". You can see a detailed description on our main website at www.nepalschoolsaid.co.uk
Now, the Nepal Ministry of Education has recently published a far reaching document which is a reform plan of the entire education system 2009-2015. Specifically the plan covers Early Childhood Education, Basic & Secondary Education, Literacy & Lifelong Learning, Teacher Professional Development and a great deal more. From our viewpoint working with Primary Schools a great deal of the plan's focus is on the physical infrastructure of the school system, so it outlines standards on things like buildings, classrooms, toilets, furniture. It sets increasing standards for initial qualifications to become a teacher and the selection process for Head teachers. School management is focused on relationships with the School Management Committees, local communities, local councils, together with governance outlines, teacher contracts, mandatory school opening days, standards of teacher attendance and much more.
This document is most valuable to us in that it gives us a template for the development of our five supported schools as well as some idea of where we may best be able to assist the Ministry of Education in our future dealings with them.

Preparations in full swing!

Not long to go now before our next visit to Nepal at the end of March. This promises to our biggest and most influential yet as we prepare to run several teacher training programmes.

The first of these will be a Teaching Skills course over two days focusing on child centred techniques and this will run twice. The second is a two day management course and this is for Head teachers.

Each course will be attended by not only teachers from our own schools but also from the Ministry of Education who we are trying to influence to upgrade teacher training in Nepal.

Preparation is underway to create the courses and to find some corporate sponsorship in Kathmandu. If you can help we'd be delighted to hear from you.