In Nepal, a share of budget in education is being spent to fund the 35-year old curriculum of the secondary level, a system where ‘being educated’ simply means ‘memorizing the course.The entire system, instead of being student-friendly, focuses on forcing as much as data and facts as possible into the students without caring much for the level of understanding and skill development. We shall try to provide a constructive study environment where students are minimally invaded by teachers and parents so that the learning process for them proves to be enjoyable and more effective...
Nimesh Ghimire ()
Student, BudhanilkanthaSchool
Government of Nepal
Ministry of Education and Sports
Department of Education
Sanothimi, Bhaktapur
Ref: Date: April 18, 2008
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
The Department of Education in Nepal firmly believes in the fact that education is the prime tool for empowering people of any country. Therefore, educating people in the most efficient manner has been the top-most priority of our country.
The Department of Education in Nepal is aware of the fact that the teaching learning environment in schools in our country needs to be as efficient and interactive as possible. The ‘Minimally Invasive Education in Nepal’ initiated by the enthusiastic group of students currently studying in A-Level at BudhanilkanthaSchool has really intrigued us. We are assured that this project is a new endeavor in the field of education in our country.
The Department of Education sincerely requests you to provide all necessary and possible support to the project to make it a success.
I thank you for your cooperation.
Signed
______
Janardan Nepal
Director-General
Department of Education
ABSTRACT
Citizens and leaders in developing countries like Nepal generally understand the importance of investing in basic education. We recognize that the high levels of literacy and numeracy are the pre-requisites for creating a competitive workforce and a nation of effective parents and active citizens.
But we also face an uphill battle in building systems capable of providing basic education for all the children, youth and adults. Financial and human resource are scarce, therefore, difficult decisions must be made in determining how best to allocate them. Thus, it is imperative that scarce resources be used as efficiently as possible.
Unfortunately, this is not what is happening. Although significant progress has been made in increasing the number of pupils enrolled in school in developing countries, these gains are undermined by the persistently large number of pupils who take more than one year to complete a particular grade or/and those who drop out of school even before completing the primary cycle.
Repeating grades and dropping out exact a terrible personal toll on the pupils involved and absorb a large share of limited resources available for education. Finding ways to minimize ‘school wastage’ must play a central role in any serious effort to raise the standard of living of the people in a country like Nepal.
Wastage is about missed opportunities for individuals, communities, entire nations and regions for the world. It deprives developing countries of the ability to make the most efficient use of scarce resources and it takes its greatest toll on the most vulnerable groups in society. Therefore, finding ways to reduce school wastage must become our urgent priority.
INTRODUCTION
The literacy rate of Nepal is about 53.7 percent (2002 Census). The Nepali government spends about 44 US$ (2006, Ministry of Education And Sports) annually per student in the sector of education. To get a rough idea of how much it is, it should be compared to the subsidy of US$ 47 every EU farmer gets daily for every cow he owns. The government, with its limited resources has been unable to achieve any remarkable success in increasing the literacy rate in recent years. Even the available resources have not been utilized the proper way and a huge proportion of budget in education is being spent to fund the 35-year old syllabus of the secondary level, a system where ‘being educated’ simply means ‘memorizing the course.’ The conventional model of classroom has been a failure in rural areas, with up to 75 percent dropout rates within the first three years of schooling in some isolated regions. The entire system, instead of being student-friendly, focuses on forcing as much as data and facts as possible into the students without caring much for the level of understanding and skill development. The students are taught by making them fear the teacher, who has the authority to give the severest of physical punishments. The system prevailing in the country, in short, is the least student-oriented and impractical and has outdated to the limit.
Some private and foreign-aided schools in Kathmandu have experimented with a new system of teaching, where the students involve themselves in different projects related to the syllabus and learn from each other for the last ten years. A few schools in Kathmandu have been involved in such projects and the results have been very encouraging. The education system adopted by these schools is constructionist system, where students develop new ideas by constructing new things and ideas themselves, instead of being instructed by the teacher.
We propose a system similar to that mentioned above but different in several aspects. This project is aimed to be a research project, to provide data for such similar projects in the future and also to help change the traditional concept of education in Nepal for improving the overall educational status of the country. We believe the system proposed will actually make students like coming to classes.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
- To test minimally-invasive teaching system against conventional method of teaching in Nepali context
- To help the open-learning community in Nepal by collecting statistics and help create a better approach to teaching in Nepali context
- To create a cycle of educational improvement by encouraging the involved teachers and students involved to disseminate the knowledge they gained due to the project to others and help others the way they were helped
THE CONCEPT
We have decided to select students from Grade six for the project. This is mainly because of the fact that Grade six students are mature enough for this type of project and have relatively less study load. The school is going to be inside KathmanduValley and not too geographically isolated.
The project is to be divided into three work-phases.
THE FIRST PHASE
In the first phase, the school is contacted and it is briefed about our plan. It should start from the new academic session which starts in Early April 2009. Until then, resources required for class 6 syllabuses are to be arranged. The school is requested to make a group of 20 interested, not necessarily those who have excelled in their studies and inform them that they are going to be a part of the project from next year. We have requested people already involved in such projects to help us and they have agreed to orient the students. While the students are being prepared, our job will be to approach different prominent personalities from various fields and to request them for one to six one-hour sessions with the students for an entire year. This includes visiting the school every month or as per their convenience. This contribution will be on social grounds and at this stage in the project, we have not allocated budget to pay them. They will be given letter of appreciation and a small token for their involvement and contribution.
The involved person will teach the students about the field they are related to; for example, a journalist could teach the students about newspapers while a politician could explain the importance of civic consciousness. Plans for field trips are to be made at this stage and destinations are to be chosen accordingly. The past performance records of the involved students (and also of those students who are not involved) are also obtained from the school for future comparisons. The teachers are oriented on how they should teach the group by experts.
A separate provision under the Minimally Invasive Education, called the MIE Mentor and Tutor program will be brought in order to involve senior students to mentor and tutor the junior students at the project school.
It has to be understood that students studying at BudhanilkanthaSchool will also be involved in the teaching process. The students shall be regularly taking a few lessons for the students in a week. About twenty students hall be entrusted with this responsibility.
THE SECOND PHASE
This phase begins at around April 2009, the beginning of new academic calendar in Nepal. In this phase the collected materials are handed to school when required. The classroom arrangement of the control group is not to be of the traditional classroom with all benches facing the teacher but like those seen in some foreign countries, students facing each other like in a seminar or a conference; we believe that it is an ideal arrangement for group works.
The teaching methodology is a bit different then the general methods of educating student. First, students are introduced to a topic and then told to discuss about it, in groups. The teacher then teaches the topic and then they are asked to write what new things they have learnt and present them in charts in groups to the entire class. A group should be ideally of 4 to 5 students and the groups should be allowed to question each other. The teacher should not interrupt unless a quarrel ensues or the students are unable to grasp certain points. Every week, one to four guests are invited to teach the class. The students should be asked to prepare a list of questions to be asked and encouraged to ask the guests all sorts of questions related to the point, even though that may mean going out of topic. The guests are requested to prepare three to six questions from what they have taught for class teacher’s convenience and to be asked in the exams. After the guest leaves the students are asked to discuss, in groups what they learnt, how their questions were answered and what they were not satisfied with and present in the class. Again, they should be encouraged to cross-question each-other. Such activities, in our belief, will improve the speaking abilities of students, increase their language skills and eventually make them more confident to face the mass. The comments are to be passed on to the guest, with discretion, with the help of the class teacher, without the knowledge of students. After each fortnight, the students are to be given a short test. Individual weaknesses shall not be pointed out, but efforts shall be made in correcting those flaws through group discussions and interactions. The scores of the tests are passed on to us for analysis and necessary action.
The way how students will be tested shall be left to the decision of the school but we will give them suggestion. It would be unfair for students inside the control group and outside the control group to be given the same set of question in exams but considering the future of the students involved in the project after the completion of the project, the students are to have their exams with their friends. Because they have followed the same syllabus and more or less the same chapters, there should be no problems for them to appear in exams. Alternatively, a school with a small class size could be chosen so that the test can be in a different, more practical format, to analyze what they have learnt and not to analyze what they have memorized.
THE THIRD PHASE The third phase of this education project somewhat goes on parallel with the second phase. In this phase, we plan to analyze the progress of the project and review the performance of the students involved. The feasibility of the minimally education concept in its wider context will be taken into serious consideration. Based on our observation and outcome, a final-detailed-report on our project will be prepared with appropriate recommendations and shall be submitted to the Ministry of Education and Sports-Department of Education and other related national and international organizations.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES
- Support from the Department of Education-DoE(DoE is under the Ministry of Education and Sports, NEPAL)
- Financial Support from Save the Children USA
- Support from The Asia Foundation
- Are in the process of contacting renowned educators from the capital.
- Requesting BNKS teachers to help us as guest teachers
- Are currently considering available connections to contact figures of public importance, mainly civil servants and journalists, including ex-students of Budhanilkantha School (BNKS) who will be contacted once the project is finalized.
RESOURCES REQUIRED
- Guest educators from diverse fields of expertise.
- Trainees in providing training to three to five teachers from the involved school instead of an orientation program.
FURTHER PLANS
- The permanent materials used during the project will be given permanently to the school and it will be requested to use the resources it already has to develop similar plans for other students too. The chart papers collected for review and auditing will be returned back to the school
- Alternately, a relation could be made between the involved school; and BNKS. As already mentioned, a few schools in Kathmandu periodically send its teachers and students to a nearby public school to help as social service. The feedback has been quite good and a similar relation could be nurtured between BNKS and the school from which both the schools would benefit even after the completion of the project.
- If the project proves to be a success, we are determined to expand this program in other under-privileged schools of Nepal.
BENEFITS FROM THE PROJECT
To the involved community
Minimally Invasive Education is a method that helps children to learn “learning” itself from a very tender age. The students of the target school are expected to experience a radical change in their willingness to learn. The proposed interactive classrooms that make learning a part of the child’s daily entertainment dose may not be compared, in any way, with the outdated, traditional method of learning which majority of the schools in Nepal apply. We feel that our concept of minimally invasive education will be successful. This implies that target school will raise itself as an exemplary school in terms of the effectiveness in educating its students.
To the Nepali education system
Education, in its wider context means drawing out or enhancing the inherent potentials or abilities of a child. The term school which originated in ancient Greece, meant leisure or love of knowledge, depending on the context it was used (Nepal: Readings in Human Development 2006)
Schools in our country, unfortunately, contravene the meaning of the term ‘school’ itself. Today, majority of educational institutions of our country have a system where ‘being literate’ merely means mugging up the contents of the prescribed course book. The students are forcefully taught in unfriendly educational environments. In other words, the entire educational system needs urgent attention and change.
Given that our project is implemented in the country, we seriously expect the Nepalese educational system to experience a paradigm shift and develop a more fundamental method of learning. This project would also further promote the ECD (Early Child Development) program which has already been implemented by the Government of Nepal in collaboration with various other international organizations. To sum up,Nepal will be producing capable, literate and more efficient human resourcein the long-run.
To other researchers
We believe that our small effort will encourage many other researchers to search for a moreeffective educational system which suits the needs of our country. Our recommendations after the completion of the project might aid them in their pursuit.
BUDGET
Rough Estimation of the total Cost for the Project 980 x 2 schools = 1960US$
Assuming 1US$=63 NC
The budget below is for one school.
Administrative Cost: NRS 9200 (US$ 178)
Transportation Costs: 12 months x 3 visit per month x 4 people x 50 2-way-cost= Rs.7200
Communication Costs (Including costs for preparing two tri-monthly and one semi-annual reports and all types of printing and photocopying works) = Rs. 4,000
Cost of Resources and Materials= Rs. 9960 (US$158)
Cost of Chart-Papers: 4.5 unit cost x7subjects x 10 Charts a week x 24 weeks of chart-works = Rs. 7560 (20 percent to be covered by the school, if possible)
Note: All chart papers are to be collected after two weeks for record-keeping and auditing purposes.
Cost of markers: 50 unit cost x 40 units in a year = Rs.2, 000 Re-fills could also be used
Cost of cello tapes = 20 x 20 =Rs. 400
Costs for visits=Rs. 17,000 (US$ 270)
- Cost for three class visits for inside the valley (with the school bearing three-fifths of the cost if possible) : 3 visits X 3000 cost per visit = Rs. 9,000
- Cost for one out-of-valley visit (With the students bearing majority of cost for lodging): 1 visit X 20 students X 400 cost for a student = Rs. 8,000
Costs for appreciation letters to Guest teachers= Rs. 6,250 (US$ 99)
25 x 250=Rs. 6,250 (20 percent to be covered by the school)
It includes the printing of about 50 appreciation Certificates.
Miscellaneous and unforeseen costs US$ 53
Rs.3, 300 (Complete budget sheet of Miscellaneous expenditure to be submitted as a part of tri-monthly report)
Estimated Cost for study materials: About Rs. 16,000 (US$ 254)
1 | Minimally Invasive Education in Nepal