Gobinda’s story EXPANDING THE REACH OF CHILD FRIENDLY SCHOOLS
Schools for Asia
Nepal
EXPANDING THE REACH OF CHILD FRIENDLY SCHOOLS
Jadhanga village
2 UNICEF Nepal
Nepal has made great strides towards achieving the international Education for All goals. Despite poverty and a recent history of conflict, enrolment in grades one through five has soared from 64 per cent in 1990 to over 95 per cent in 2012, and 74 percent of children aged three through five are now enrolled in Early Childhood Development/pre-primary education programmes. But challenges remain. Despite the fact that primary education is free through grade five, 1.2 million children age 5-16 are still out of school. Most are from poor families or marginalised groups with a high incidence of household poverty and child labour. Those who are fortunate enough to attend school, study in environments that are not conducive to learning with teachers who rely on rote learning methods. As a result, student learning assessments show generally poor levels of learning with high repetition and drop out rates. The government’s ambitious School Sector Reform Plan (2009-2015) was designed to address many of these challenges. Equity-oriented measures such as scholarships for disadvantaged children and free textbooks for all aim to bring poor and marginalised children into schools. The Child Friendly Schools (CFS) National Framework was adopted by the government in 2010. It serves as a guideline for all Nepali primary schools on how to improve service delivery and quality so that the teaching–learning process is meaningful and joyful for children. However, thus far, many of these policies and strategies are not well implemented, particularly at the district and school levels. In order to build a stronger education system, capacity building is essential—at all levels. UNICEF is working alongside the government and other education partners in Nepal to make Education for All a reality. The organisations’ new education programme (2013-17) narrows its focus to 15 districts (of Nepal’s 75) where education performance indicators are lowest. Not coincidentally, these 15 also
have the highest levels of child deprivation. UNICEF will focus its efforts to affect real change by targeting a greater number of schools in each district, strengthening the capacity of more education stakeholders and creating synergies with other UNICEF-supported programmes, such as health and child protection. A narrower focus will also allow the organisation to assist in expanding the CFS National Framework—currently only in grades one through three—into the higher grades. In these pages, you will meet Gobinda, a sixth grade student from the mountains of Far Western Nepal. At 14, he shoulders much of the responsibility for supporting his family while attending school as often as he can. Unfortunately, Gobinda’s story is all too common. Two in every five children in Nepal live in absolute poverty and children in the Far-Western Development Region, where Gobinda and his family live, and particularly the children of poor, illiterate mothers suffer most. Like Gobinda, many are engaged in work to help their families. This presents an obstacle to continuing their education. In circumstances like these, education is critical to breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty. Over the years from 2013-17, Gobinda and his siblings will be among the 1.3 million grade one through ten students in Nepal who will benefit from strengthening of the Child Friendly School approach and its expansion into the upper grades. It is critical that teaching and learning be child-friendly so that students like Gobinda want to continue—ideally to complete eight years of quality basic education and then transitioning to secondary education. What they learn must be relevant to ensure students are equipped with the skills and competencies that will be useful in their future lives. And all stakeholders must ensure that measures to promote equity, including scholarships, are properly administered to allow them to continue. Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 3
My name is Gobinda Baduwal. I am 14 years old and I am in the sixth grade. I live in Jadhanga village in western Nepal in the district of Bajura. My father died when I was 10 and my mother has a bad leg. I live at home with my two brothers and two of my four sisters. As the oldest son it is my responsibility to help my mother take care of our family. Right now all of us are in school. I go as much as I can, but I also have to work. If I get to continue going to school I think I might become a teacher. Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 5
06:03 Ama
(Mother) returns home after feeding and milking our cow and our buffalo.
06:10 We
have tea and rotis (bread). Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 7
NANDA DEVI BADUWAL Gobinda’s mother
“Things are difficult for us because I’m physically disabled. I injured my leg when I was three or four years old. It has no feeling. I have to drag it along with me and sometimes pull it with my hands here and there. I can’t climb steep places or carry heavy loads and it is difficult for me to bend my body, so nobody will hire me to work for them. “My husband died four years ago. Before that we had a good life. We had money, and he would help me with the household chores and the children. But he was illiterate. Before he died he was cheated out of almost all of our land. I am also illiterate. I can’t even sign my name. Sometimes I feel like I am a dead body or a blind person; I am trying to get some of our property restored, but I have no idea what’s really happening. Whatever others tell me, that’s what I have to believe. “I have seven children. My oldest daughter, Shanti, is 18. A couple of years ago she ran away. Now she is married. She has a new baby and I haven’t even seen it. I miss her so much. My second daughter, Manisha, also ran away. I worry so much about her. I have not had any news from her in over a year. “I still have five children at home: three sons and two daughters. My daughter Suna is 15, my sons Gobinda and Rupa are 14 and 12, Dura, another daughter, is six, and my last child, Khadag, is four. What is most important to me now is that my children get at least some education so that they are never in this kind of situation in the future. I am trying my best to keep them in school because from my heart I believe that being able to read and write is the path to a better life. But their fate is like this: they don’t have a father and they have to work. I try, but I can’t always provide enough food and clothes and school materials for them. Sometimes I really have no idea how I will manage.” 8 UNICEF Nepal
“The other photo you took is good, but I want you to take one of me sitting like this,” says Nanda Devi. “This is how I feel most days.”
06:22 Ama
sharpens our sickles before we leave for the field. Every morning before school we help her to do whatever work needs to be done.
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This morning we are working on land that belongs to a relative. He harvested the wheat and said we could have the stalks for animal bedding if we cut it and take it away.
06:39
Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 11
07:23 Ama
07:25 ...while 12 UNICEF Nepal
keeps working...
Suna and Dura and I collect greens for the animals...
07:51 ...and
Rupa carries home a bundle of straw. Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 13
08:23 While 14 UNICEF Nepal
Ama stores the straw under the house, Rupa, Dura and Khadag play.
08:46 Ama
heats up our breakfast--rice with potato and soybean curry. Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 15
08:55 It’s 16 UNICEF Nepal
time to get ready for school. We wash...
09:24 Ama says goodbye and tells us where to find her after school.
09:13 ...and Ama:
then get dressed.
Khadag, you need to stay home today so I can wash and mend your uniform.
Khadag: No! Fix it now, Ama. I want to go to school!
Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 17
09:32 School
isn’t far. It takes ten to fifteen minutes to get there.
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“Gobinda started school late. He was eight years old. He was our longawaited first son. We loved him so much. We were scared to send him—even with his older sisters. What if he fell into the river? We were scared to let him go anywhere. Finally we realised that all of the other children his age were already going to school, so my husband began to take him. For a long time he walked Gobinda to school every day.” —Nanda Devi Baduwal Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 19
10:06 Every
morning before classes start we have an assembly and we exercise.
Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 21
How does UNICEF help?
GOBINDA BADUWAL Age 14, grade six
Advocating for equity in education UNICEF and its partners have been instrumental in encouraging the Ministry of Education to implement a number of equity-oriented measures throughout the country. This includes free schooling and textbooks, school meals for food insecure districts, scholarships for girls and vulnerable groups (low-caste groups and children with disabilities), construction of latrines that are child, girl and disability friendly, and school grants for supplies and stationeries. Advocacy has also resulted in the setting of a quota for the female and disadvantaged population which the government must use when recruiting new teachers and the continued development of strategies to help the Ministry reach out-of-school children. UNICEF also provides critical support to improvements in the information collection systems that the government uses to monitor equity.
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Work “It is hard to go to school and work. Some days I am late to class because I am doing my household chores. Sometimes I miss most of the first period. When I miss a class it can be hard to catch up. If there is something we don’t understand we can ask the teacher once. If we ask again, the teacher yells at us. “Sometimes I miss school for a few days at a time. I like school and I know it is important, but if there is a ‘project’ where I can work and earn money to help my family I also have to work. Right now I am working as a labourer on a dam project. Friday is a half day at school. I leave home early Friday morning and walk all day to the work site. I stay and work for three or four or maybe five days and then I come home. When I am gone for so long there is a big gap in my learning. But I think to myself, though I am missing school, this month I will have earned 1000-1500 Rupees (US $10-15) for my family. So I feel okay about it. When I get home I ask my friends from class what the homework was and I try my best to do it. “I would like to go to school and not have to do labour work. Most of my friends go to school regularly and they learn things. If I could do that, I would be better educated and I could have a better life.”
10:18 Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 23
10:20
School “I have five teachers. One of them doesn’t teach very well. Last year that teacher asked one of the students in my class to recite the five times table. He said, ‘Five times one is five, five times two is ten...’ and the teacher stopped him: ‘No, five times two is eight’—and hit the boy’s hands with a stick. Then all of the students together said ‘No, five times two is ten!’ The teacher added it up and saw that it was ten and said, ‘Oh, you were right. Sorry.’ That made me feel scared to speak up in class. My favorite teacher is the head teacher. He hits our hands if we don’t do our homework, but he doesn’t shout for no reason. “My happiest day in school was when I was in class three. I was about to graduate and we got to spend the last four days of the school year in one of the new child-friendly classrooms. The seating arrangement was good. We had round tables instead of desks and benches. Our floors are just dirt, but the one in that classroom was smooth with wooden boards covered by a carpet and cushions. There were nice pictures and posters on the walls. We don’t have anything like that in our classroom, even now. In that classroom they had one teacher all day instead of different teachers coming in for different subjects. And that teacher taught in such a kind way. He asked us to do things by saying ‘please’ and he gave us the opportunity to play and sing. “My favorite subject is Nepali. We are Nepali. That’s why I like it. I’m not sure, but I think when I grow up I might like to be a secondary school teacher. I would teach Nepali.”
How does UNICEF help? Implementing equity strategies Between 2013 and 2017, UNICEF and its partners will work with schools and communities in the 15 target districts to develop locally relevant strategies that address obstacles to access and retention. These include the school calendar, language (only 45% of people have Nepali as their mother tongue), disability and gender- or caste-based discrimination. Strategies will grow out of school-level data, a situational analysis of each school and meetings and reflections with stakeholders. They may include, for example, radio distance education, libraries, support to teachers in methods for reading enhancement, the development of a local curriculum (government norms stipulate that 20% of the social studies curriculum should use locally developed content to provide more locally relevant learning, but many schools lack the capacity to implement this), and catch-up classes for out-ofschool children.
Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 25
How does UNICEF help?
PADAM BADUWAL Head of the School Management Committee
Strengthening stakeholder capacity School Management Committees (SMCs) are in place in most schools, but many lack the capacity to perform their roles to assess the situation, formulate action plans, and monitor progress. For example, many are unaware of the nature of the funds that the school receives from the state. Hence scholarships meant for girls and the most disadvantaged children may not be properly allocated. UNICEF and its partners are working to strengthen the capacity of SMCs and other stakeholders including District Education Officers, local authorities, teachers and parents so they can fully participate and make meaningful contributions to support their students and their schools over the long term. UNICEF is also bringing children’s voices into the process. The organisation piloted children’s representation in SMCs in three districts. The initiative was so successful that it has become part of the CFS National Framework that is in the process of being implemented nationwide.
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“Grades one through three in this school became child-friendly four years ago. Previously children were taught by the ‘parrot method’ and learning was only focused on textbooks. Neither the teachers nor the students had any creativity. With the Child Friendly Schools Initiative all of that has changed. Children learn through playing and interacting with each other and with the teacher; they sing and dance; they talk freely in class and are no longer scared of the teachers. “When I was in grade three, I knew nothing compared to the children who are in grade one today. They are much more aware of everything going on around them. Every day they have to bring news from their daily lives or from the community and present it to the rest of the class. They know the day and the date; they work well in groups and they speak up in class. Not only are they getting a good education, they are getting it at a government school—so it is free—and they are getting it while they live at home. This means they can help their families—which is good not only for their parents, but also for the children. Those who are sent to far away private schools may be good with books and do well in their exams, but because they live away from their families, they often lack the skills and practical knowledge they need to cope with life—whether they end up having a job or not. “I often wonder what these children will be tomorrow. Whatever it is, I know it will be good. That’s why I am looking forward to expanding the child-friendly approach into all of our classrooms.”
10:43 “I
like to talk with students,” says SMC Head Padam Baduwal. “I think they also need to learn practical things at school, like the importance of planting a kitchen garden.” Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 27
How does UNICEF help?
RUPA BADUWAL Age 12, grade five
The Child Friendly Schools Initiative UNICEF and its partners implemented the Child Friendly Schools Initiative (CFSI) in Nepal beginning in 2004, with a focus on the early grades of primary school. In 2010, the Ministry of Education established detailed standards and indicators through the CFS National Framework and is now in the process of rolling these out nationwide. UNICEF, in addition to supporting 15 disadvantaged districts, will help the government with strategies to effectively roll out the new framework throughout the country. Another focus for the new country programme is extending the CFS framework to target older children and inschool adolescents. The aim is to improve the quality of teaching and learning so that students stay on to complete eight years of basic education followed by at least two years of secondary school.
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“I like going to school. My favorite things are dancing, drawing and playing with my friends. I also love songs and poems, and there are a lot of those in Nepali, so I like that subject best. “I loved grades one, grade two and grade three. I could draw more and play more and I could have a snack at school if I brought one with me. I could also play the drum in class. In grade three, I drew lots of pictures and they were hanging in the classroom. I felt so happy. I would tell everybody ‘Look, that’s my drawing!’ “When I went to grade four things were different. In grades one through three, the classroom had a wooden floor with a carpet and the room was nice. Now the room isn’t so nice. There are desks and benches and a mud floor. We don’t hang up any of our work. “But school is fine. In the morning I finish my chores fast so I can be at school on time. The teachers don’t hit us much and I am getting good marks. Only math is a little hard—and sometimes when I am at school I worry about the work at home, which can make it hard to concentrate. “If Ama can continue to support my education, one day I want to be a teacher. I would teach English and Nepali. If I can’t do that I will be a farmer.”
10:56
11:04 “Often
I have two students read the English dialogues aloud in front of the class,” says Yam Sharma. “Most of them need a lot of practice with their pronunciation.”
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How does UNICEF help?
YAM SHARMA Head Teacher, Nepal National Secondary School, Jadhanga
Teacher training To date, most teachers and heads of school have had little or no training in child-friendly teaching and learning methods. They do not have a good grasp of what they are or how to implement them. UNICEF Nepal and its partners are supporting the government in providing teachers and heads of school in target districts with the training they need. This will improve their teaching methods and allow them to meet the new CFS standards. By 2017, they will ensure that all grade one through eight teachers in the 15 target districts have received training and that children’s general well-being in school is assured through participatory school action plans that include health, WASH, child protection and child participation.
“The Child Friendly Schools Initiative is a good thing. The children in grades one through three are very friendly with one another, they are active and participate, and they are not afraid to talk with the teacher. These are all good things. But most of the time they are just playing. I believe we need to get them to focus more on reading and writing so that when they move up to grades four and five, they are ready to do the work that is required. “Teachers used to hit the children if they didn’t do their homework. Now, in grades one through three, the children get to play and the teachers are loving to them and friendly with them. When they get to grade four the children want to carry on in the same way. But they are not very disciplined. It is hard to control them. They don’t adapt well to the learning environment and the teachers can’t work well with them because they still want to play—but they can’t. They need to focus and they cannot have so much free time (recess). Gradually we bring them around, but it takes a month of hard work to change them.” Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 31
SUNA BADUWAL Age 15, grade four
“When my brothers and my sister were young, I had to quit school so I could help my mother take care of them. I started grade one and then I dropped out for two years. Sometimes, when I saw Gobinda and my older sisters leaving for school, I wished I was going too. But most of the time I liked being at home and looking after the others. “When I went back, I started in grade one again. It was different than the first time I went. We did drawing and dancing and singing. It felt good to be in school again. “Now I have finished grade three and I am starting grade four. I have only been here for a few days. It’s different—we can’t dance and sing freely and we can’t make drawings to display in the classroom and we have different teachers for different subjects—but it seems okay so far. “What do I want to be when I grow up? I don’t know. I don’t have any plans.” 32 UNICEF Nepal
11:45
12:09 “I
like school,” says six-year-old Dura. “Today I played with my friends and I drew a picture of a man.”
How does UNICEF help? Parent education Many parents, especially those who have never been to school themselves, don’t recognize the impact child-friendly
“Some parents still feel like the children in grades one, two and three are just playing. They want to see their children writing and reading all the time. Playing and singing are extra things for them that don’t look like what they think of as ‘learning’. This is a lack of awareness on their part. We need to put more effort into making them understand what is happening in the classroom.” —Padam Baduwal, Head of the School Management Committee 34 UNICEF Nepal
teaching methods have on their children’s school performance. Developing stakeholder capacity also means enhancing parents’ knowledge and capacities so that they can support their children to develop to their fullest potential.
12:26 ”I
like my teacher. He is kind.” Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 35
How does UNICEF help? Strengthening the capacity of education authorities Nepal still lacks capacity at the national, regional and local levels to implement the ambitious measures outlined by the Government to achieve the Education for All goals by 2015. This includes the Child Friendly Schools National Framework. Thus, UNICEF and its partners are working at all levels to strengthen the capacities of duty bearers so that in the long run, they can fully play their roles. To achieve this, UNICEF and its partners provide law makers, government authorities, and Ministry personnel with evidence-based studies, reflection workshops, information and technical support. They also work with the government to ensure that national policies, plans, and strategies are equity-oriented. At decentralised levels, they help duty bearers translate policies into local level action and support the training of regional and district-level education personnel like Resource Person Manbir Khati. This allows for better monitoring and support for schools in the implementation of these activities.
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MANBIR KHATI Resource Person, District Education Office, Bajura District
“Previously, enrolment in this school was low, as was attendance. Schools in Nepal are open 220 days in a year, but the majority of children were in school only 100 days. As a result, repetition and drop rates out were high. The teachers were also frequently absent, and they taught using the ‘parrot’ method. Children’s ‘learning achievement’—which is measured not only by performance in exams, but also by factors like cleanliness and personal hygiene, participation in class, and doing their homework regularly—was just 25 per cent. “Four years ago, when this school started implementing activities to become child friendly, the situation changed. After their training, teachers became accountable to the students: they were present in the classroom, they cared about what students wanted, and they started to participate in student activities. A friendship grew between them. Because they were no longer afraid of the teachers, children wanted to come to school. Today most students are here for over 200 days of the year, and few drop out. Learning achievement has risen to 85 per cent. “Currently, only children in pre-school (ECD) and grades one through three study in child-friendly classrooms. When these same students move to grade four they really feel the contrast. They are looking for the same environment as in the lower grades, but the teachers teach using lectures, not participatory methods. The students don’t understand the change and they don’t enjoy it. They don’t like their teachers. And because the teachers don’t know how to work with them, they try to assert their authority by yelling at the students or hitting them. Both sides are demanding a change. We must make the upper grades child-friendly too.”
12:26 “I supervise teachers in 66 schools,” says Manbir Khati (right). “It is my job to help them become more effective at what they do. I try to visit seven to ten schools every month, but it is not easy to get to many of them-—the most remote is four days walk from a road.” Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 37
12:48
13:11 “I
like playing with blocks,” says fouryear-old Khadag, “I don’t like dancing and singing.”
How does UNICEF help? Preparing children for educational success Young children in Nepal face particular challenges when entering school for the first time. In the five UNICEF target districts in the Far Western Mountain Region, home to Nanda Devi and her family, the repetition rate in grade one is 22.9 percent and the drop out rate is 8.7 percent. Research shows that Early Childhood Development (ECD) programmes play an important role in helping children transition into school and succeed because they arrive ‘ready to learn’. UNICEF is the only major Development Partner in Nepal that is supporting ECD. Not only have they worked to develop standards that will improve the ECD curriculum and teacher training nationwide, they have supported the mapping of ECD centres to ensure that the most vulnerable groups are served and have ensured multi-sectoral coordination (with health, WASH, nutrition, protection and stimulation) to enhance young children’s holistic development. Ultimately, UNICEF’s goal is that all children entering grade one will have had ECD experience.
13:35 Ama 40 UNICEF Nepal
has a lot of work to do while we are in school. She washes the dishes...
14:02 ..harvests
the dried lentils... Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 41
...and works with our neighbors to winnow our wheat. “We only have enough land to support us for three months of the year,” says Nanda. “To get the rest of what we need I help neighbors with their fields and in their houses and they pay me in food. Whenever there is an opportunity, Gobinda earns money by working on different projects. The neighbors also provide us with rice to help us get by.”
15:20
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15:33
16:09 Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 43
16:33
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16:34 After
school Rupa and I go swimming in the river with our friends.
Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 45
16:53 Suna
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and Khadag go to wash the animals.
17:02
17:18 I
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collect firewood and carry it home.
17:44 I
usually milk the buffalo, but if Ama is here, it won’t give me any milk. Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 49
18:28 Ama
prepares rotis and pickle for our evening meal and makes extras for tomorrow morning’s breakfast. “I feel tired,” she says, “but that’s nothing new. I do this much work every day. If I had more food I could do more work, but my priority is to feed my children.”
19:04 We
do our homework by the light of a solar-powered bulb.
Schools for Asia Gobinda’s story 51
All children deserve an education that will allow them to reach their full potential. UNICEF is working with the government, Development Partners, local education authorities and NGOs to provide Nepal’s most vulnerable children with a child-friendly education that builds a strong foundation for a better life.
www.supportunicef.org/schoolsforasia
ABOUT UNICEF UNICEF’s goal is to make a difference for all children, everywhere, all the time. All children have rights that guarantee them what they need to survive, grow, participate and fulfill their potential. Yet every day these rights are denied. Millions of children die from preventable diseases. Millions more don’t go to school, or don’t have food, shelter and clean water. Children suffer from violence, abuse and discrimination. This is wrong. UNICEF works globally to transform children’s lives by protecting and promoting their rights. Their fight for child survival and development takes place every day in remote villages and in bustling cities, in peaceful areas and in regions destroyed by war, in places reachable by train or car and in terrain passable only by camel or donkey. Their achievements are won school by school, child by child, vaccine by vaccine, mosquito net by mosquito net. It is a struggle in which success is measured by what doesn't happen—by what is prevented. UNICEF will continue this fight—to make the difference for all children, everywhere, all the time.
To fund all of its work UNICEF relies entirely on voluntary donations from individuals, governments, institutions and corporations. We receive no money from the UN budget. 54 UNICEF Nepal
Photos this page: Gobinda Baduwal
UNICEF Nepal
PO Box 1187 UN House Pulchowk Kathmandu NEPAL Tel : + (977) 1-5523 200 Fax: + (977) 1-5527 280
Following the success of Schools for Africa, in January 2012 UNICEF launched the Schools for Asia initiative:
www.unicef.org/nepal Photography, writing and design: Kelley Lynch
www.supportunicef.org/schoolsforasia