Background : Nepal Education has only recently started to develop. The Rana regime in Nepal has suppressed education in Nepal so much that it had inflicted a blow to Nepal Education. Rana regime feared educated public so education was never encouraged there. There were only few English middle and high schools and a girls’ high school in Kathmandu prior to Second World War. After end of this regime in 1951, education in Nepal was given importance. Though an education System was established in Nepal, thousands of poverty – stricken people could not send their children to school. During 1975, free primary education was offered to children by the then government. Caste problem was a major deterrent in development of Education of Nepal then. Some of the schools were set in town, so children staying in village cannot attend there. Moreover the cost of living in town was so high that people could not afford to stay there.
Illiteracy rates in Nepal are about 58%.
Education System: From Grade 1- 5 is considered primary education while, 6-8 secondary and 9-10 upper secondary. The classes 11 and 12 are together considered higher secondary. A school leaving Certificate is granted to students after passing class ten. Education, Science, Humanities are the streams offered after for Higher Secondary and a certificate is issued after exam.
During our field visit of Community Schools in various parts of Nepal, we found community schools fuffer from following problems.
- All of the schools suffered from a lack of teachers
- Lack of teaching materials – pens, books, pencils, paper, etc.
- In many of the schools, students are learning outside because there are not enough classrooms to accommodate them all. During warm weather this is obviously less of a problem than when it is cold outside
- Many of the schools did not have enough, or any, sports equipment for the students to play with outside. The students seemed to be innovative and were able to play with what was available, although having more balls etc. for the students to play with would be great
- Only some of the schools that I visited were equipped with computers, and not usually many of them
- The organization Room to Read donated libraries to a number of the schools I visited, however, there were still many schools that did not have libraries
- There were a few schools that did no have toilets or clean drinking water
- Many of the schools identified the lack of a school compound as a problem. Personally, I think that there are other more important aspects of the schools to improve before the compound
- Pretty much all of the student are very poor and on the student forms many of the site dress as one of their main problems along with economic problems
- Many of the schools do not have a comfortable learning space for the children
Schools actively seeking help