OLPC Nepal/Background

National Education Background

Read about Nepal's Education background through the Education in Nepal Wikipedia page. Some national education statistics from UNICEF and UNESCO are below.

Education Statistics from UNICEF/UNESCO

UNICEF Education Statistics in Nepal from 2003-2007	Numbers
Youth (15–24 years) literacy rate, 2003–2007, male	85%
Youth (15–24 years) literacy rate, 2003–2007, female	73%
Percentage of population with phones	12%
Percentage of population that use Internet	1%
Primary School Enrollment Ratio, gross male to gross female (2003-2008)	127:126
Primary School Enrollment Ratio, net male to net female (2003-2008)	78:74
Primary School Attendance Ratio, net male to net female (2003-2008)	86:82

UNESCO Education Statistics in Nepal from 2008	Numbers
Survival rate to grade 5	62%
Primary to secondary transition rate	81%
Pupil/student ratio (primary)	38:1
Public expenditure on education as % of total government expenditure	19%
Literacy Rates for Male Youth (15-24)	85.7%
Literacy Rates for Female Youth (15-24)	73.3%
Literacy Rates for Male and Female Adults Combined	61.9%
Enrollment in public and private primary school	4,418,713
Enrollment in public primary school	3,965, 957
Female enrollment in public and private primary school	2,159,764
Female enrollment in public primary school	1,966, 819

Current Educational Programs

The School Sector Reform Plan (2009-2015): The SSRP is a major undertaking by the government and supported by the donors and other stakeholders. Most of the education budget goes to this program. The School Sector Reform Project aims to increase access to and improve quality of school education, particularly basic education (Grades 1-8), especially for children from marginalized groups. The total estimated cost of the project is $2.6 billion USD. There are two components to the Project:

• The first component of the project is basic education. The primary objective of this component is to ensure equitable access and quality of basic education for all children in age group 5-12, prepare pre-school-age children through Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED) for basic education and deliver basic numeracy and literacy to youths and adults, especially women and marginalized groups.
• The second component of the project is secondary education. This component aims to improve equitable access to secondary education by financing: (i) the expansion of physical facilities, including classroom construction and rehabilitation, library and laboratory construction, and the construction of schools for children with special needs (CWSN), and (ii) targeted scholarship schemes for dalits, marginalized groups, disabled, girls and children from poor households.

The Education for All (EFA) Program: The Education for All Project began in 1990 at the World Conference in Jomteim. The project's long-term development objective is to improve access to, and benefit from basic and primary education for children, especially girls and children from disadvantaged groups, and from literacy programs for poor adults. The project will achieve three strategic goals: a) improving access to, and equity of basic and primary education; b) enhancing educational quality and relevance; and, c) improving efficiency, and institutional capacity of education service delivery.

According to the UN Nepal website, the EFA National Plan of Action has outlined its framework according to the following six major goals set by Dakar Forum in 2005 for the year 2015 and one more goal added to suit national contexts with the spirit and the ultimate goals of the EFA. These goals are:

• To expand and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
• To ensure that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education to good quality.
• To ensure that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programs. iv) To achieve a 50% improvement in levels of adult literacy 2015, especially for women and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.
• To eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girl's full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.
• To ensure the right of indigenous people and linguistic minorities to quality basic and primary education through their mother tongue.
• To improve all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized essential life skills.

OLPC/OLE's Work In Nepal

History and Deployments: detailed article:OLPC Nepal

The OLPC-Nepal chapter began with two Nepali engineering students. The project was taken over by OLE (Open Learning Exchange), an NGO dedicated to assisting the Government Nepal in meeting its Education for All goals by developing freely accessible, open-source Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based educational teaching-learning materials. Nepal's original pilot schools included the Bishwamitra Ganesh Secondary School and the Bashuki Lower Secondary School. On April 25, 2008, A total of 135 laptops were deployed to students in grades 2 and 6 in both schools. OLE partnered with the Nepalese Government Department of Education for these deployments. A year later, on April 26, 2009 OLE Nepal deploys nearly 2500 laptops to 26 schools in 6 districts of Nepal. XO Laptops are installed with E-Paath interactive learning activities integrated into curriculum for classes 2, 3, and 6.

In its two years of operation, laptops have been deployed to teachers and students in 26 schools in six districts and 125 teachers have been trained to integrate the laptop-based approach in classroom teaching.(from the OLE Nepal January/Feburary 2010 newsletter).

E-Paath: E-Paath is a collection of digital education materials prepared by OLE Nepal. Digital content is the backbone of ICT-based education. Providing laptops with relevant and localized education content increases the possibility of their being used regularly in classrooms. The activities are tailored to the Nepali context, child-friendly, open source, multi-media based and fun to use. In April 2008, a Pilot program was launched at the two schools in the Kathmandu for grades 2 and 6.

All activities are developed on curriculum objectives outlined by the Curriculum Development Center (CDC) and are conceptualized by curriculum experts. After conceptualization, they go through a process of graphic design, programming, testing and finalization before being deployed to the schools. The in-house software team is also building learning activities designed by education experts. The activities can be used by teachers to fulfill learning objectives, are subject and grade specific, and have been designed for classroom use. Using these activities as part of the regular instruction process, the students can learn new concepts, do practice exercises (for both class work and home work), and self-assess their progress. In short, these learning activities enhance the possibility of self-learning.

E-Pustakalaya Development (E-Library): OLE Nepal’s implementation model focuses on the creation and distribution of content. A digital library, in this case E-Pustakalaya (E-Library), is an integral part of this model. E-Pustakalaya is envisioned as a common resource of a variety of educational texts and reference materials, not unlike any physical library. Its User Interface (UI) development is also inkeeping with this vision.

At a glance, the objectives that have driven the development of E-Pustakalaya are as follows:

• To make the library resemble (to the extent possible) a physical library, in terms of ordering and grouping of content
• To make a variety of content (e.g. Novels, Textbooks, Audio, Video, Magazines) available, and have interface options (specifically in terms of language) to view them in
• To streamline the user interface to ease access to required information with minimal point and click effort
• To provide online and offline access at partner schools to the available content
• To allow for easy tagging, searching and linking of content
• To make the content downloadable for offline reading

Work with WFP In Nepal

As part of the April 2009 laptop deployment, the United Nations World Food Programme helped launch an OLPC pilot project in the Dadeldhura district in partnership with OLE Nepal and the Nepal Government's Department of Education. The initiative deployed 180 laptops to second and third graders and teachers in three government, Far Western Nepal schools. The project also provides Nepali-language interactive teaching and learning materials to primary schools. WFP also provides mid-day meals of fortified wheat-soya blend to 182,000 primary school students living in 11 Far-Western districts.

World Food Programme in Nepal

Overview of Food Insecurity in Nepal from the WFP Nepal website:

• 3.5 million people in Nepal are considered to be moderately to severely food insecure.
• 41% of the population is estimated to be undernourished (total July 2010 population estimate is 28,951,852)
• Food insecurity is due to a variety of factors, including:
  • Weak agricultural growth;
  • Strong population growth;
  • High rates of poverty;
  • Geographical isolation; and
  • Inadequate access to health services, water, and sanitation.

WFP's work in Nepal

• WFP targets the most food insecure, hard to reach, and least supported districts of the Mid and Far Western Hills and Mountains. In 2010, WFP provided support to 2.2 million people in Nepal. Their strategic priorities include:
  • 1. Support the country’s protracted peace and recovery process by reducing hunger and undernutrition;
  • 2. Fostering increased resilience amongst vulnerable communities;
  • 3. Providing humanitarian response to and preparing for increased environmental disasters

WFP's Projects in Nepal:

1. Assistance for Vulnerable Populations Affected by Conflict, High Food Prices and Natural Disasters:

• Relief and recovery operations that target 1.6 million people in 2010 (WFP's largest program).
  • Food and Cash for Assets Activities: supports communities in developing resources and enterprises aimed at reducing hunger. Beneficiaries are engaged in projects such as building and repairing roads, irrigation systems, fishery ponds, and cash crop cultivation. Carried out between planting and harvest period when household food stocks are leanest.
  • Micronutrient Supplementation Interventions for Children: WFP provides sachets of micronutrient powder (MNP) to 114,000 young children (6-59 months) of food/cash-for-assets participating households in 25 districts.
• As of mid-2010, operation has reached 770,000 beneficiaries in 22 food insecure districts

2. Country Programme: 520,000 Nepalese (including direct recipients and family members) benefit from the following activities:

• School Feeding & One Laptop per Child: (See above)
• Girls’ Incentive Programme (GIP): More than 54,000 school girls receive monthly-take home rations of cooking oil as an incentive for regular school attendance. Implemented together with school feeding in 11 Far Western districts and independently in five Terai districts where girls’ school attendance is very low.
• Mother and Child Health Care: provides monthly, take-home rations of fortified food to 31,000 pregnant and lactating mother adn their children.

3. Food Assistance to Refugees from Bhutan: In 2010, WFP will provide daily food assistance to more than 80,000 Bhutanese refugees living in Eastern Nepal.

4. Emergency Operations: Disaster Response in Nepal: WFP provides logistical immediate disaster response in 60 of Nepal's 75 districts. Operations include providing relief supplies to 170,000 people following major flooding of the Koshi River in October 2008, and extending food assistance to 700,000 additional people during the 2008/2009 winter drought. Since 2006, WFP has provided emergency food assistance to over one million people in Nepal.

5.Food Security Monitoring:: 32 field based staff collect data on food and crop security matters through PDAs and satelite telephone. The information is sent to Kathmandu where it is analyzed to detect early warning food security issues and analyze rural food systems. The system is expected to be operational in all 75 districts of Nepal by mid 2011.

WFP Financial Numbers in Nepal
Planned Beneficiaries	2,254,850
Beneficiary needs	US$ 90,543,999
Multilateral contribution donations	US$ 1,977,200
USA Donations	US$ 1,092,528
Private Donors	US$ 478,069
Denmark	US$ 71,968

Other Education Development Initiatives

1. World Education: a private voluntary organization, World Education provides training and technical assistance in nonformal education across a wide array of sectors. The organization has a number of education projects in Nepal, including:

• 1. Quality Education Resource Package (QERP): In collaboration with the Ministry of Education, UNICEF, and local partners, QUERP provides a "toolkit" of materials and activities. The toolkits empower parents, teachers, and students and provide better quality learning materials. QERP addresses many issues, including improved school management, improvement of facilities, and the use of child-centered teaching. Each school that receives a package is provided with games, posters, art materials, brochurs, and modules on priority topics, radio, and a Resource Manual. Initially piloted in 2000 schools, there are plans to expand the use of the QERP to all 26,000 primary schools across the country.

• 2. Rehabilitation of Children/Youth Affected by Armed Conflict: World Education has facilitated the reintegration and rehabilitation of children/youth formerly associated with armed forces & armed groups (CAAFAG) and children affected by armed conflict (CAAC) as per the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2006. With support from the US Department of Labor and UNICEF, World Educatino is providing education support to 1,000 CAFG and 450 vulnerable children to attend formal school or vocational training. In this final phase, World Education will facilitate the provision of continued educational support to self-released CAAFAG and CAAC who need additional support, including to continue school.

• 3. Brighter Futures Program: One in every three children is a child laborer in Nepal. Working with the International Labor Organization's International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor in Nepal, World Education is aiming to combat child labor through education. Activities are carried out at the local level and policy level with the government and international agencies. This includes provision of non formal education opportunities and the strengthening of community based education.

2. Nepal Special Needs School Partnerships with UNICEF: The good practice models for this study included two inclusive schools (Daleki School, andTribhuvan Madhyamik Vidhyalaya), a community-based programme (Community Based Rehabilitation Organization, Bhaktapur), an early intervention programme (Adarsha Child Development Centre) and a teachers’ development initiative (Shree Bindeshwori Primary School, Bidhuwa).

• In particular, the Daleki School is run by an NGO and is supported by individual sponsors. All children from marginalized families, including those with disabilities, have access to the school. The school provides a holistic service including free school meals, books, stationery, uniforms and medical care. The school principal, all teachers including the special education teachers, and parents work collaboratively to decide how best to meet the diverse needs of their students.

3. Good Neighbors International: GNI launched its work in Nepal in 2002 with the objective of child care and community development. It is an INGO based on Republic of South Korea with consultative status in UN ECOSOC (United Nation Economic and Social Council). Since its establishment GNI have been operating child development and community development activities in different parts of Nepal through its partner NGO Ashal Chhimeki Nepal (Good Neighbors Nepal).

• The organization operates hostels and classrooms for poor children in different parts of Nepal, including near Kathmandu.

4. Caritas Nepal: Caritas works mostly in the western region and operates under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church.

• Pays particular attention to Bhutanese refugees children’s education. (Also happens to be one of the WFP's main priorities)

5. Equal Acccess: While their work does not focus on on-the-ground education initiatives, Equal Access utilizes digital satellite broadcasting technology to bring vital development information direct to underserved communities in rural settings. It implements numerous communications for development projects in Nepal, with programming on a range of thematic areas including education, healthcare, microfinance, sustainable agriculture, human rights and conflict management, HIV/AIDS and women’s empowerment. (Could be interesting to coordinate with OLE Nepal?)

6. Save the Children USA: Save the Children USA aims to help children and youth develop their potential, complete a basic education and be prepared to be productive citizens.

• SC/US works with parents, communities, local organizations and governments to offer high-quality early childhood development, non-formal education and school programs.

Other Resources:

Nepal Education Resources

• Nepal's Ministry of Education website
• Nepal's Department of Education website
• Wikipedia page on Education in Nepal

OLE in Nepal

• OLE Nepal
• OLE Nepal blog
• OLE Nepal Newsletters
  • January/February 2010 newsletter
  • May/June 2010newsletter

NGO Resources

• List of NGOs in Nepal
• Association of International NGOs in Nepal (AIN}
• UNICEF report on examples of inclusive education in Nepal
• UN Nepal Agency Profiles, including a list of NGOs

Food Security Resources

• WFP's Food Security Monitoring System