December 2024
Catalan cellist Pablo Casals said it: ‘A child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there has been no other child like him and that until the end of the world there will be no other child like him.’ And of course that applies to girls too....
The main motivation of our Nepalese partners at the Centre for Educational Policies and Practices is to improve the quality of primary education. The organisation chooses to put children's talents, needs and interests at the centre of the educational process, in contrast to the great importance traditionally attached in Nepal to ‘book learning’ and the reproduction of acquired knowledge.
CEPP chooses to pay special attention to the youngest children: toddlers and first- and second-grade children, because they believe it is important that children get a good foundation. This too is rather unusual in Nepal: bigger students enjoy more prestige and often get the best classrooms, while in teachers' rooms you find plenty of didactic materials that unfortunately rarely find their way to the classes with the youngest children.
Improving early childhood education is only possible if there is close cooperation and rapport between students, teachers, management, parents and the village community, and if everyone can participate in ‘lifelong learning’.
How does CEPP, in collaboration with the above partners, make early childhood education better and more attractive?
CEPP field workers make numerous home visits to motivate parents and grandparents to send children to school, they also discuss how the home environment can support the child in school tasks.
Even during school holidays, the greening motivator visits families to see how the children and the vegetable garden are doing.
Mothers help the teacher make educational materials for the youngest children.
Parents are welcome in the classroom. The walls are didactically decorated and the atmosphere is cheerful. School furniture is often too big an expense. Therefore, CEPP creates one model classroom in each cooperating school for preschoolers or children of class 1 or 2. A first intervention is to install a floor of reclaimed wood, with fitted carpet over it. This keeps dust and cold away.
This photo clearly shows how rudimentary the classroom was originally furnished. This is the case in most government schools in these remote rural regions.
The teacher meditates with the preschoolers before class starts.
Creative forms of work,
children making their own picture books,
intently doing maths…
... and playing language games.
With the youngest children, CEPP plants shade trees in the school grounds.
On this vegetable bed, the children will soon sow and plant cabbages, tomatoes, cauliflower and spinach. Of course, none of this can happen without an offer of continuing education to teachers, parents and the school management committee.
CEPP organises workshops for teachers, including on motivation and on how to make your own educational materials for young children and use them in the classroom. /em>
Teachers receive support from CEPP in monitoring pupils. After all, these systems of continuous assessment are new and imposed by the government.
Training for parents is also indispensable. Mothers are central.
Here, children from Class 1 and 2 make cards for Mother's Day.
Afternoon nap: young children still need a lot of rest.
Together with parents and teachers, CEPP also provides a natural playground in each participating school: a safe area with playground equipment made of recycled wood. What would the children think of that?
The photos in this article were taken by Smarika Limbu, CEPP's education officer for Sindhuli District and by Amarmaya Lama, education officer for Makwanpurgadhi. We hope they give you an idea of the motivation and efforts of the schools, students and their parents, to work together with CEPP to make primary education child-centred and take it to the next level.
Your support is welcome to the account number BE32 2200 7878 0002 in the name of BIKAS vzw, with the mention ‘From School to School’.
Thank you!
Paul Beké and Carine Verleye