Education goals

After a visit to the UK for medical appointments  I am now back in full time work and will start to writing  about what I, my team, and many others working in educational development in Nepal are trying to achieve.
Most parents here value education highly and if they can afford it, they send their children to fee paying schools where there is usually a better standard of teaching and learning than in the government schools which are free up to grade 10 ( age 14/15). Poorer families rely on the free government schools and enrollment has improved since free text books are now provided.
However, poor parents still have to provide money for uniforms, exercise books, stationary, back packs and exam fees which can be a real barrier to sending their children to school. The drop out rates of students in government schools remains high,especially for girls, class sizes are very large and teacher training has only recently been improved. Since children are an important source of labour in poor families, if the education quality is very poor, parents may not feel it is worth the financial sacrifice to keep sending them to school.
UMN and many other organisations provide scholarships to disadvantaged students and a key aspect of my role as education adviser is to help to improve the standard of education in the government schools.Here is a typical unimproved  classroom in a government primary school. The conditions ar every cramped but  notice how all the children go to school in tidy uniforms.

 Even schools with poor infrastructure can improve the learning environment with some fresh paint, posters on the walls and displays of students work. Here are some examples from a  school which is trying to implement a more child friendly approach to learning. Notice the rearrangement of tables instead of having them in rows, allowing the teacher to move around and interact with students . There is also peer teaching and a much more better environment for helping students to learn.