Footprints Project

A total of
10012
Travelers
donated
$25002.54
(100% funded)
to help improve
Education
in
Nepal

Project Overview

The funding received from the Footprints program from this period is integrated into our 3-year quality education program in the Nele district. In 2013 the program continued to form part of an ambitious program to improve the education of the vast Solu Khumbu region of Nepal with over 35,000 children and over 1700 teachers in 307 schools that extend from the impoverished foothills to the base of Mt Everest.

The Footprints program is helping to improve the education of approx. 5500 children, 350 teachers in 59 schools in the Nele district, which is part of the Solu Khumbu region. Unlike its more prosperous Sherpa communities that live beneath of the shadow of Everest, Sotang is in dire need of support. Educational facilities are basic with some schools accommodating up to 100 children in one classroom, where teachers have little or no training and where children regard textbooks as a luxury. It is therefore not surprising that educational outcomes are among the lowest in Nepal.

Program Objectives

Develop child-centred teacher training methods
Provide relevant and appropriate teaching materials and resources to schools
Increase teacher and student attendance, increase girls’ enrolment in schools, and reduce drop-out rates of children from schools
Promote mechanisms for reliable and fair annual assessment of student achievement
Ensure that the key teachers are selected and extra training given for their capacity building in classroom support and management

Activities

The following workshops were conducted between January 2013 and December 2013

Programs	Status	Date	Region	Female	Male	Total
Main training workshop	2nd year	24th Dec. 2012- 13rd Jan. 2013	Nele	132	148	280
In School Support	2nd year	18 Feb. -18 March. 2013	Nele	47 Schools
Child Protection Program	1st year	8-16 March, 2013	Nele	118	125		243
Refresher training workshop	2nd year	12-23 April 2013 & 13^th to 18^th July 2013	Nele	140	169		309
In School Support	2nd year	June 1st -14th 2013	Nele	60 Schools
Key teacher sharing meeting	1st year	21st -22nd June 2013	Nele	5	11		16
Community Orientation Program	3, 5 & 9 Year	26 Aug. -1 Oct. 2013	Garma, Sotang & Nele	2632	2459		5091
Scholarship program Monitoring	1 year	17 Sept.-9 Oct. 2013	Mukli & Nele	16 schools			0
Key and RPs Teacher Workshop		8-13 Dec. 2013	Khumbu, Sotang & Nele	15	43		58

Challenges

There have been significant ongoing challenges in improving the level of teacher training in rural communities. These include:

The commitments and skill of the teachers is often disappointing – simply put they have no idea how to teach
The percentage of new untrained teachers being appointed.
Knowledge of subject content often very weak
Parents often don’t understand the value of education, and encourage students to work as porters, help in the fields, look after the children.
School Management Committees and parents and even headmasters often have a poor understanding of the role they can play in improving education standards in the school.
Lack of teacher learning materials
Lack of support for the poorest students.
Class sizes are incredibly high with small dark classrooms
Lack of Stationery for the children
Limited areas or facilities for the children for recreation.

What we’ve achieved

Improved teacher training as is evident by the workshops attended by nearly 300 teachers
Access to more relevant and appropriate teaching material and resources - including regular supplies of textbooks and writing books to all schools in the district
Increased teacher and student attendance and girls’ enrolment and reduced student drop-out rates – with encouraging figures over the last two years
Improved understanding of quality student assessment by trained teachers and Government agencies - as is evident from the marked improvement of support by the district education offices
Development of a team of education resource personnel and a Key Teachers Program to implement ongoing training and support activities – again encouraging signs with 58 outstanding teachers being selected for advanced training.

Future plans

Activities in Nele provide part of an overall 12-year program in the Solu Khumbu region. Following the completion of the Nele district the program will continue in the Necha/Kerung districts in July 2014. To ensure the sustainability of the program and improve educational standards further refresher training and key teacher training workshops will continue and further educational resources supplied to the Nele district.

Footprints Project

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