Major donor sees quality education in Kathmandu

This week one of our major institutional donors from the UK has spent two days in Kathmandu evaluating our work with a view to extending our partnership into the future. We had arranged for them to observe a number of sessions on our Foundation course which was running at the time, as well as visits to three different schools.

Course observations focused on the facilitation technique we use around Values For Children and they watched an early session where teachers were being taught the process by our Senior Consultant, Babita, and then followed this up a day later observing the teachers practising running a session themselves.

Kalpana, Principal of Min Nath School displays the school values poster.

We visited three schools, all in different environments and contexts. Siddi Mangal school is in the village of Siddipur and is therefore full of children from farms and rural homes. Min Nath school is a city centre school and quite different in the parent and children backgrounds. Lalit Kalyan school is also city based, but unlike the other two has been working with us for 2 years. All three schools demonstrated considerable effort to implement a more child centred approach to their lessons and there was evidence of this in the classes we observed, resources being used, posters on the walls and the attitudes of the Head Teachers.

At the end of the second day our guests visited our new premises and experienced "the seating arrangements" in our Nepali style training room!

Advanced course programme launched in Kathmandu

At last after a wave of short one day strikes we have been able to launch our programme of Advanced courses. These are more skills based than our Foundation course and currently cover three topics, English Intermediate (Literacy), English Early Learners (Phonics), and Values For Children (V4C). 

To qualify teachers must have completed our Foundation Course and show signs of implementing what they learned from it.

At the end of last week we completed our first two days English Literacy Teaching course for a group of English teachers who learned to use a range of active techniques including story telling, word games, memory games, making stories from pictures etc. As expected however the standard of English amongst the teachers themselves is very low and we must seriously question the value of this course.

Today we have started our three days Phonics Course for a group of Nursery and Class 1 teachers. This course is based around the UK's Letters & Sounds syllabus organised into a series of Phases (1-6) in which children are taught sounds, phonemes and graphemes. We realise that we cannot make experts of these teachers in three days, but we CAN give them the basics and encourage them to study and practice more.

Welcome to Nepal!

Getting through Kathmandu airport within 40 min is one hell of an achievement and to be sitting in our taxi after passing through immigration in record time as well as our baggage being first to arrive it looked like Nepal had taken a turn for the better.

As our plane left Delhi for it's one hour flight to Kathmandu the excitement from the mass of tourists making their first visit was obvious. Sitting next to us was a young group of doctors from the UK, newly qualified and coming to work at the Kathmandu teaching hospital for a month as volunteers. Behind us was a newly married couple also visiting for the first time who had booked an adventure holiday honeymoon beginning with a few days at the Last Resort on the Bhoti Khosi river for whitewater rafting, kayaking and bunjee jumping!

Our own excitement was unusually high for regular visitors; tomorrow was to see the launch of our new Advanced Programme of teacher training and later in the month an "inspection visit" from our major financial partner.

Two hours later and the euphoria from all parties hit rock bottom with the news that Monday another bandh (strike) had been called by the Jana Morcha political group protesting about the government's proposals for the organisation of new federal states! Such a bandh means road blocks and no vehicular movement rigorously enforced by all violent means possible, so, nobody moves.

And the meaning of all this? Well the newly weds cannot set off for the Last Resort and have lost a day's rafting, the volunteer doctors have lost their day touring the sites of Kathmandu before a short trek then the start of their volunteer work.

And of course NSA cancels it's new programme launch and the conference hotel loses a day's business fee from our booking.

Welcome to Nepal!

Appreciation from Nepal's Ministry of Education

After yesterdays posting about the rising trend of quality education at Lalit Kalyan school in Lalitpur, we received the appreciative email below from one of the Under-Secretaries at the Ministry of Education in Kathmandu. Worth its weight in gold, literally, as a motivator of staff, teachers and ....... donors.

"Thank you very much for sharing a wonderful achievement. On behalf of the Ministry of Education, I appreciate the efforts you and your team have made for our schools in Nepal. I hope this process will be continued in the days to come. 

With best regards

Mukunda M Khanal

Under Secretary

Ministry of Education, Nepal"