The educational system in Nepal is in crisis.
Resources are scarce, qualified teachers are rare and educational materials are scant. Government support is limited, especially in the rural and remote villages. Nepal, ranked as the 16th poorest country in the world, does not have the resources to provide even a basic education to most Nepali children.
All villages should have a public school building, but often these buildings are community built, very basic and not well suited for the purpose, as government resources are limited.
Teachers have very little training and support, and there is no proper curriculum and often very little class planning. The government provides minimal support, but the support is incomplete. For example, there may be text books, but no teacher able to teach the material. Or the text books are out of date and the material is obsolete. Some schools only teach a very limited subset of subjects, because they do not have the educational materials to cover a full curriculum and provide a complete education.
Teaching under these circumstances is a very difficult job. It can be overwhelming for the individual teacher, trying to do their best for the children. Often teachers are under qualified and under resourced, and teachers also need much more support and training to continue to provide the educational programs currently running. Without this essential support, some teachers give up and leave the profession entirely. Other’s persevere, but they just don’t have the resources they need.
Social problems are rife in the wider community, with most parents being uneducated, and a high percentage are alcoholic. The kids don’t get a good example set for them, nor the support they need to continue at school. They often don’t complete primary school, let alone high school. Some families are very poor, and the parent’s priority tends to be to keep the children at home, to help with the household work, rather than obtain an education. Those parents who do send their children to school understand that education is their child’s best chance at a better life. However, because these families are so poor, the children are often dirty, not fed and have no pencils or books or other school supplies.
KERE Kids is helping to provide the basic essentials of education in their pilot program of their first five schools, and many areas are very much looking forward to the project reaching their town. People want a better education system and they want their children to have access to a full curriculum and child centered learning programs.
All the schools currently in the program are excited and hopeful, that with more resources devoted to their schools, the migration of children to the cities to be educated in boarding schools will be stopped. It is a vicious circle, as the more children that are sent to the city leave, the less children are left in the village to study. And the less Government resources the school receives. Keeping children in their home villages, able to obtain a quality education is key to a brighter social, educational and economic future for Nepal.
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