http://blog.olenepal.org/index.php/archives/290
written by Rabi karmacharya, exec director OLE Nepal
This is a compilation of observations from the first week of the laptop
implementation at the two rural schools in Nepal — Bashuki and
Bishwamitra Ganesh. After the launch of the project on April 25th, we
visited the schools for the next six days, spending entire days working
with the teachers and observing the classrooms. This was the second part
of the teacher training program, with the first part being the 4 day
residential program that was help from March 29 till April 1. Typically,
the day would start with discussion of the day’s lesson plans with the
teachers, and then we would proceed to observe the classes where the
teachers used the learning activities developed by OLE Nepal in the
daily teaching. The details of the teacher training program can be found
in Dr. Bhatta’s post. Here I will write about general observations about
the children and the laptops at the two schools.
Bashuki School
Between the two test schools, Bashuki is undoubtedly the more
challenging one. The school located near a hilltop in Lakurebhanjyang
serves a community of Tamang people, an indigenous group that inhabit
the hilly region. Most students come from poor families that depend on
agriculture and menial work to make ends meet. The literacy rate is
quite low, but the teachers are determined to change this. However, they
face a daunting uphill task to educate children from villages where
sending kids to school means losing extra hands to work the fields.
Furthermore, out of the 10 teachers, only one is from the local
community, while the rest have to trek up at least 1 hour each day to
reach the school. In this respect, the school is quite detached from the
community. Most teachers do not speak the local Tamang language, while
few understand it. Overall, it is not easy for the teachers to mix in
with the local people and interact with them.
We had distributed a total of 75 laptops - 39 to grade 2 students, and
36 to grade 6 students. During the first week of school, the attendance
was not very encouraging. Most of the week there were between 25-30
students in grade 2, and 20-25 students in grade 6. This could be due to
the fact that there was no clear indication of when classes were
supposed to begin, a typical problem faced by schools all over Nepal.
According the ministry, public schools across the nation were supposed
to start classes on April 17th, but due to various reasons, this rarely
happens in most schools. Ironically, schools are required keep
admissions open till mid-May. To make things worse, textbooks had not
been delivered to the schools till date. These are ground realities that
teachers and school administrations have to deal with in educating
children in rural areas. Nevertheless, it was quite surprising that even
the lure of the cute laptops were not enough to entice the students to
school. The teachers told us that full attendance is a rarity because
siblings take turns between going to school and staying home to help in
the fields and do household chores.
The School Management Committee (SMC) and school administration had
jointly decided not to send the laptops home with the students during
the first week. They wanted the children to get more familiar with the
laptops before they take them home with them. While we first were not
happy with the plan, in retrospect, it turned out to be a good idea
given the number of students that did not show up at school after the
distribution day. Since the students had limited time with the XO’s
during this week, they were not quite familiar with the laptops in the
classroom.
Grade 6 students at Bashuki
Bishwamitra School
This school located in a wooded area in Jyamirkot serves a mixed
community consisting of Brahmin, Chhetri, Newar, Tamang and Dalit
groups. The school has a core group of dedicated teachers who have been
affiliated with the school for over 20 years. Three of the twelve
teachers had at one time attended the school. Almost all the teachers
hail from the surrounding villages, and they are very tied to the local
community. They have close relation with the parents and the community.
People in the community put high value on education. Hence, we see that
it will be easier to successfully implement the project in this school.
Students from both grades were allowed to take the laptops home from the
very first day. Out of the 38 students in grade 6 and 22 in grade 2,
almost all of them were present throughout the first week of classes.
The teachers conducted regular classes for all grades during this
period.
Since the students had extra personal time at home with the XO’s they
were very much familiar using the XO’s in classrooms. Even the second
graders were navigating around the XO without much problem, and were
able to get to the activities that the teachers were referring to. The
sixth graders had tried out other activities besides the
