Better Schools in Rural Nepal!

In our last report, we explained how ETC had finished up the last bits of school improvement work in schools with which we had been working since 2008. Now that ETC is working in numerous new villages, we have been collaborating with the personnel of 31 schools in those villages to determine the most important and pressing needs for improvement. In this report, we'll highlight two particular schools and their youngest students.

Gujarpa Lower Secondary School is in Lapilang Village Development Committee. Nikobhumi Higher Secondary School is in Babare Village Development Committee. Both have pre-primary classrooms - what we in the United States would refer to as pre-school and kindergarten, for the children who are a year or two younger than the average Grade 1 student. You can see photos of each classroom attached to this report. The teachers of these classes were among the 17 who have participated in our recent professional development activities - including orientation and training in best practices for working with the youngest students, and establishment of a pre-primary teachers' network. Professional development opportunities for educators are rare in rural Nepal, and these teachers are delighted to be benefit from ETC's programs. Their classrooms have also received useful supplies, such as wooden puzzles, alphabet and number blocks, crayons and colored pencils, and paper - all of which will help them offer a more enriching educational experience to their young students. You can see from the photos that there is need for physical improvements, such as wall plastering/painting and the provision of child-sized furniture. These two classrooms will be among the first to receive such improvements, although all 31 schools in our new project area will benefit from some improvement work over the course of the next few years.

These two pre-primary classrooms are among several that individual donors can sponsor. For $1,000 per year, a donor can sponsor a specific pre-primary classroom and receive twice yearly photos of the class, letters from the teacher (and signed by students as they are able), information about the children's activities and about what has been accomplished in terms of physical improvements to the rooms, and perhaps artwork or poems, etc. created by students in the class.

Please note that the observation of major fall holidays (Dashain and Tihar or Deepawali) means that schools were closed for much of the period from late September (which is also the end of the monsoon season) through late October. Now that the groundwork of establishing relationships and setting priorities has been completed, the physical improvement work can begin in earnest. We'll have more details in our next quarterly report. In the meantime, thank you again for your support, and please contact us at director@etc-nepal.org with any questions.

Links:

• ETC's Facebook page
• ETC's website

• New project area map and facts (PDF)
  

The summer of 2014 marks a transitional period for Educate the Children, as we are phasing out of the villages where we have worked since 2008 and into a new set of villages, farther to the north and higher up in the Himalayan foothills. (I use the word “foothills” somewhat tongue-in-cheek and in a relative sense, since more than two-thirds of the Dolakha District terrain is at or above 2,000 meters/6,400 feet in elevation!)

We could not leave, however, without completing the final school improvements in the old project area. This work will ensure a safer, more comfortable, and more attractive learning environment for thousands of children both immediately and for years to come. Since May, the work we have completed includes: 

• At Devisthan Lower Secondary School – new roofing, painting, and ground maintenance
• At Suryodaya Lower Secondary School – painting and new classroom furniture
• At Kshamawati Higher Secondary School – new classroom furniture
• At Guranse Primary School – new classroom furniture
• At Saraswoti Vidya Mandir Primary School – plastering and painting
• At Mahadesthan Primary School – plastering, painting, and veranda maintenance

You can see the some of the results of this work in the attached photos.

Preparing to begin doing school improvement work in new villages involves working closely with school personnel to identify the greatest and most pressing needs, as well as gathering support from parents and other community members who will be participating in the work by collecting materials and providing labor. Subject to the final decisions made in the coming weeks at a meeting of ETC personnel and all area schools’ headmasters/headmistresses, it is our plan to complete the following work by summer 2015 (some schools may receive more than one kind of assistance):

• Fifteen schools will have plastering and painting work done
• Six schools will receive new classroom furniture
• Five schools will have new toilets built and grounds maintenance work done
• Five schools will have work done to install or fix doors and windows

In our next quarterly report, we will include some photos of the specific schools in the new villages where we’ll be working during the coming fall, winter, and spring. For now, if you are interested to see typical conditions at public rural schools in this area, you can see some photos on ETC’s website at http://www.etc-nepal.org/photos4.php.

In the meantime, as always, we thank you very much for your support. We truly could not do it without you!

Links:

• Photos of new project area
• ETC's Facebook page