Training 1500 Teachers |Empowering 5000 Girls/Boys

This Global Giving campaign is funding some of PHASE Nepal’s education activities in some of the remotest regions of Nepal, including teacher training in rural schools such as Bajura. PHASE Nepal is also conducting alternative classes in remote Northern Gorkha to ensure children are getting the education that they are entitled to.

Sumi, the PHASE Nepal Education Officer, recently visited Bajura district in far west Nepal to monitor our teacher training work there.  Having observed one of the teachers who took part in the awareness level training, Sumi said:

“Naina is a teacher at Chandra Nath Lower Secondary School in Kolti, Bajura. He has been teaching primary school children for 18 years. He chose this profession because he loves teaching and playing games with the students.

It was a very nice morning when I arrived and the children were excited because it was time for mathematics class. The students knew that there was going to be lots of fun and activities related to numeracy. The students seemed very happy in Naina’s class.

The teacher told me that he had learnt so many teaching techniques in the training and he has been using them in his classroom. He also said that PHASE Nepal’s training provided lots of ideas and methods which made it easy to plan lesson in a way which involve children and help them to learn and engage in fun way. He thinks this type of training should be given to teachers in schools all over Nepal.”

Alternative Schools in Chumchet, Northern Gorkha

Chumchet is a cluster of very remote villages high in the Nepalese Himalaya around four days walk from the nearest road.  PHASE has been working in this region, mainly on health programmes, since 2007.  Following the successful establishment of a primary health post (where there was previously no medical care) the next step of our integrated community development programme is to work with the local government to establish primary education provision. 

PHASE set up two alternatives schools one in Shree Sidhha Ganesh Primary School and the other in Yarchu village. The purpose of the alternative school programme is to prepare small children for enrollment in government schools when they grow older (as schools are often several hours walking away from home, small children aren’t sent there when they very young).

There are 37 students currently attending Shree Sidhha Ganesh Primary School – 11 male students and 26 female students and 33 children attending Yarchu school. 

Prasika has been a teacher in the PHASE Nepal’s alternative school for 5 months, she is very happy about working with the children in Yarchyo, Gorkha. In the beginning, Prasika was nervous about living in such a remote place which is 5 days walk from the nearest road. However after 5 months she is enjoying working in the region and wants to continue teaching there. Prasika told us: “It’s amazing to see how the children in Yarchyo are so interested in studying. They come to the school regularly. They are excited and very involved in games and activities.”

Pema is a 13 year old boy who is in Prasika’s class he told us: “I wish Saturday would not come, because on Saturday I have to take the cattle to the forest to graze. I would rather be in school with my friends learning and playing. My teacher is very kind. She gave us warm jackets and shoes for the winter.”

Urmila, another PHASE Nepal alternative teacher has worked for 3 years.  She said: “The students’ writing, speaking and reading skills have improved a lot. Before, when we asked questions to the students, they used to repeat the question back to us as their first language is Tibetan not Nepalese. For example: if we asked “What is your name?” they repeated “What is your name?” But now they can communicate in Nepali language and even in a little bit of English.”

Kalpana the PHASE alternative teacher in Taju village in Northern Gorkha also shared her experience: “The children used to feel very shy before. Now they ask questions when they don’t understand what we are saying or teaching. Girls actively take part in games, like the boys. Before, girls used to feel very shy to play football but now they are actively involved in all games and in class activities. They are doing very well in exams too.”

We would like to thank you all for your continuous support to PHASE Nepal and the children in Nepal!

Links:

• PHASE Nepal website
• Sign up to PHASE Nepal newsletter

Januka K.C. is an exceptional NTTI-trained primary school teacher from Mahindra Daya Secondary School. She was born in one of the traditional mud thatched houses in Thumpikar village. At Mahindra Daya School she was recognized by her teachers as being one of the school’s strongest pupils and hired to teach at the school as soon as she graduated, at only sixteen years old. She taught Nepali language there for nineteen years. After attending the NTTI training Januka decided to assume the challenge of teaching Maths because the school’s children were doing especially poorly in that subject on national exams. “I wanted to make games and activities, as I learned from NTTI, to help them better understand mathematical principles” she explains.

The NTTI team observed Januka teach a third grade math class using hands-on activities, group collaboration, and a fun “hot potato” game to practice multiplication tables. The children were actively engaged for the entire lesson and there was an air of industrious excitement. Most importantly, the formative assessment at the end of the lesson proved that the students had mastered the lesson objective.

Januka told the NTTI team: “I learned so many things from the NTTI training that I am still using in my class. The instructional sequence “I Do”, “We Do,” and “You Do” is such a helpful way to organize the lesson. I also include activities for all different learners (auditory, visual, and tactile/kinesthetic) in my lessons and I do group work and include an evaluation at the end of every lesson so I can know whether my students understood. If they don’t do well on the evaluation, I know I have to reteach the lesson the next day. All these things I learned from the NTTI program more than two years ago.”

 One of Januka’s students, twelve-year-old Dipesh Nepal told us: “We like to learn with the games and songs Januka Ma’am makes for us because then we really understand.”