Training 2000 Teachers/Empowering 10000 Girls/Boys

Nepal's whole eduation sector had been hard hit by the pandemic at the moment. While some of the private schools in the city areas are operated online, most of the public schools are closed at the moment hoping to resume soon. The past year has been difficult for everyone. In this report we would like to share with you, a short summary of our Educational Activities in the completed Nepali fiscal year i.e. from  Mid-July 2020 to Mid July 2021.

PHASE Nepal Education Programme has been one of the main components of its integrated community development projects. Since its inception Talking about school related education projects this year, the whole sector has been largely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.The public schools were closed most of the times because of the covid-19 restrictions. The only time the school were open was from December to March in Gorkha and January to March in Bajura, mentioning about the two project areas were the projects were implemented. Utilizing the school’s opened time PHASE Nepal implemented its planned activities maintaining social distancing and covid-19 prevention protocols.

Here is a short detai lof the finished activities.

Empowerment Workshops for Girls:

This fiscal year a series of empowerment workshops were completed in the project locations ofBajura, Bichchya. The workshops were primarily themed on improving the knowledge, attitude and practice of the girls regarding, health, educational attainment, equality and fundamental rights thus enabling them to aspire for better health, education and fight with the social discrimination and practices such as menstrual isolation.Although the theme of the workshop is to empower the girls, both boys and girls were involved in thematic classes so that whole generation of the adolescent youth could be covered. The classes were taken by local female facilitators. The workshops were interactive, focused on practical learning via role play and activities. A total of 110 girls and 82 boyss took part in the programme. Involvement of adolescent boys was inevitable for equitable growth and leadership of the girls.

Improvement of School’s physical Environment

As a part of improving the school’s physical environment, several initiatives weretaken this year which are summarized as follows:

1. Repairing of the septic tank and toilet water pipes in Manjushree Secondary School, Kashiguan

The septic tank of the toilet built by PHASE had been damaged by a small landslide this year making it nonfunctional. Utilizing the time of school closure, the septic tank was repaired with joint contribution of the school management committee. After the repair the school toilet is functional again. During the repair work, the plumbing work of the toilet and handwashing taps was also repaired. Schools’ toilets are one of the most essential part of safe and healthy school environment and especially sensitive in ensuring girls attendance and regularity in the school.

2. Construction of the slab bridges across therivuletsin the school premises

Children going to Keraunja Secondary school has to cross small rivulets that run across the slopes of the Keraunja hill. The rivulets have often 1 or 2 wooden planks or nothing to cross through them. Small children often fell into the rivulets and got injured. To solve this problem by making the school travel safer, the project supported the construction of slab bridges with iron railings in 4 such locations in the vicinity of schools. The construction has enabled the formation of the safe walking bridge across the rivulets for school children.

3. Upgrading the computer classes of Manjushree Secondary School

With the request from the school management, PHASE Nepal supported the upgrading of the laboratory by providing 10 desktop computers and related accessories. The furniture required for the classes were managed from the school’s side. With this 2 secondary and 2 basic schools (Lower Secondary) , a total of 4 schools have their own computer rooms to get and assess to digital literacy and learnings. These rural computer classes are first of their kinds and have provided direct access of practical classes as per Nepal government curriculum to the children from rural community schools.

Besides, PHASE supported Early Childhood Classes were also provided follow up support providing additional logistics such as visual aids and learning materials.

4. Community Meetings

Because of the COVID-19 risk, we largely did informal meetings and interactions with the stakeholders keeping the social distancing.

A total of 2399 students were directly benefitted from the PHASE's services which includes 1262 girls.

" PHASE Nepal's integrated school support is well appreciated , we hope to resume schools soon and bring the school sector back again with more rigour and enthusiasm. Hoping for PHASE's suppport in the future too", shares the school principal of Manjushree Secondary School.

 PHASE Nepal family would like to send sincere thankgs to all the donors and supporter for your continous support and generousity. Hope the difficult times will be over and we are again in the field to support the children of the remote communities.