Celebrating Education for Freedom

For 6 years MS Nepal and BASE Bardiya have been working together to enhance the quality and quantity of education for the children of former bonded labourer’s through the programme “Education for Freedom”. On the 11th and 12th of October 08 an Education festival was launched to celebrate the achievements of this programme.

Text: Toya Gautam, MS Nepal. Photo: Jinita Bishwarkarma, MS Nepal

18. November 2008

Hundreds of people including school children with cheerful faces were in line with beautiful garlands to welcome hon. Minister of Education mrs. Renu Kumari Yadav, Danish Ambassador Finn Thilsted and other prominent guests and representatives of the press as they arrived at the festival site in Janta Nagar, a small ex-kamaiya settlement in the country side of Bardiya. “We have prepared these garlands to express our full hearted gratitude to the guests for supporting the education of our children by coming all this way to celebrate with us here in our village”, one local lady in the line explained to me.

The celebration included the inauguration of Bardiya’s first environmentally friendly and climate responsive school, built in just 20 days with the help of scores of volunteers from the community. Mr. Finn Thilsted, Danish ambassador to Nepal inaugurated the new building and expressed his hope that the experiences of Bardiya will provide a broad base for the expansion of services with affirmative intervention in the upcoming reform of the education sector 2009 – 2015. A programme that Denmark is supporting substantially.

 “This is an example of good work and we are very thankful to the Danish people and government for their corporation with and support to the education sector of Nepal” the hon. Minister of Education, ms. Renu Kumari Yadav expressed when she inaugurated the education festival.

Improved teaching-learning

During the festival, which engaged thousands from the local Tharu community, people were dancing, singing and talking with the guests while school children demonstrated different games and experiments which they are using in class rooms as part of the method called “child centered teaching learning approach”. This method is one of the major parts of the Education for Freedom project which has revolutionized the teaching in many of the 22 schools involved in the project. The method involves the preparation of cheap but inspiring materials, class room rules to enhance discipline, use of games and ultimately the message that to teach, one needs to understand the basic psychology of children and create an environment of trust and supportiveness.

 “The drop out rate of marginalized children has decreased significantly due to the EFP project”, the DEO of Bardiya, mr. Ram Prasad Upadhyay, a firm supporter of the project, emphasised.

The dawn of a new beginning

“The EFP project may be coming to a close in its current form, but as it is now handed over to the community this festival is a dawn of a new beginning”, said BASE advisor Sonam Wangchuk and added that: “BASE has managed to mobilize a network of school management committees all over Bardiya who will be responsible for carrying the movement further and extending the success”.

Sonam Wangchuk has been the initiator of the new school type, which is going to provide a cool learning environment in the hot summers of southern Nepal and a warm one during the cold winters and while the first truly climate responsive school was inaugurated at the education festival the next, built in 15 days is on the way in a nearby village. Speed is paramount since the new building design is likely to included among the main designs when Nepal sets out to built 50000 class rooms needed to meet the millennium goal of primary Education for All. 

High school students donated a day to the children of former Kamaiyas

The education for freedom project which has directly touched the lives of roughly 15000 children in 22 schools, 92 non-formal education centers and 44 early childhood development centers is financed through the work of 30000 Danish students who contributed one days labour back in 2002, collecting roughly 80 million Nepali rupees for this cause. Each year Danish students volunteer to donate a day’s work for different educational projects all over the world.