Ensuring Quality Education

London, an ultra modern city that has culminated in saturation of modernity. A society that is multicultural and multidimensional, a place where the hustling underground rail service carries the nation’s spirit. It seems if the city is in fire and everyone is trying to escape. The city hasn’t slept for ages and so are the people. The country runs in a machine-like system and institutions and people are the tiny parts of it which again comprises of micro system in itself. After completing my post graduate degree in International Relations, I left this country behind and landed in Jumla/Nepal where people are still practicing a medieval lifestyle, women are still forced to live in an animal shed away from home during the menstruation, girls are married in early age and people believe in witchery and necromancy rather than doctors and hospitals. This is the society that allured me to land and work in educating mission.

Education is the source of everything; it’s a master key that opens all the deadlocks. The process of receiving education begins from early stage and is a continuous process till death. In Nepal, a large sum of budget is allocated in the education sector through GOs and I/NGOs but the outcome is very little. The trend of private or boarding education is fostering high and the people trust in public schools are depleting. To send a child in boarding school has been a matter of prestige in the society. This (mis)conception is dominant not only in town and city but also in the villages. Is there flaw in our education system, the question arises. The policy makers should intensively think about it to strengthen both school and college education as our institutions are often blamed as manufacturer of unproductive manpower. The reformation should start from scratch and spread it in higher level.

In the scenario of meeting Millennium Development Goal, most of the program whether governmental or nongovernmental are primarily focused on school enrolment and completion rate. A considerable progress has also been made in school enrollment. The concern here is whether the students are learning as expected or not. Nepal government has expected a learning achievement of minimum fifty but national learning achievement rate itself is forty two percent. This rate is even lower in deprived community and geography. The learning achievement of Jumla is even worse and alarming despite the innumerable efforts from both GOs and INGOs.  

Literacy and Numeracy 

Reading skills and numerical skills are the main component when we talk about literacy. The proficiency in reading and numeracy in early grades determine the future academic achievement of a child. On the other hand, if a child drops out before completing primary education, reading and numeric skills help to perform their daily household chores. According to EFA Global Monitoring Report UNESCO, 171 million people could be uplifted (which is 12% cut in global poverty) from the poverty in developing country if they at least have the basic reading and numeracy skills. In Nepal, students who attend primary schools struggle to read text written in Nepali and lack general mathematical skills. In some context, they even fail to recognize the alphabets and numbers and solve basic mathematics. This failure in literacy and numeracy skills is the hindrance of cognitive development of a child which is manifested in poor performance in higher grade. Thus, the focus now has to be shifted toward quality education rather than quantity to increase the learning outcomes. The improvement of learning outcomes of early grade students with focus on literacy and numeracy by creating child-friendly learning environment and strengthening teachers’ capacity along with production and management of local resources is the present need.

Literacy 

Kofi Annan once said, “Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope” and this bridge is very weak and dilapidated in Jumla like the wooden bridges. So what is literacy? Literacy is generally understood as an ability to read, write, speak and listen well. Literacy sometime refers only to reading, sometimes reading and writing and sometime reading, writing, speaking and listening. Though there are varieties in definition of literacy, we should focus on the ability to read and write at an appropriate level or as desired by the government of Nepal through the curriculum. Thus, literacy can be understood as an activity which people use to read and write for personal and social purposes. Being literate means understanding social conventions and exposing problem solving capability. A literate community is a dynamic community that involves in sharing of ideas and seeks solution to achieve a quality of life. Only then, the journey from misery to hope can be accomplished.

I would like to clarify a general concept “Learning to Read Vs Reading to Learn” which everyone knows but how many of us have really thought about it. The early grade learning is a process of learning to read. A child learns to recognize the letters and read words and sentences gradually. This is the foundation stage and the whole academic achievement that s/he achieves is founded on it. This is the stage that determines and delineates the future success of every child. As a child completes early grade and enrolls in higher grade, s/he enters to a stage “Reading to Learn” i.e s/he now reads something to learn new things. S/he derives knowledge through reading (a book, newspaper or any written scripture). This reading is meant to be comprehensive and meaningful not vague and inarticulate. But the problem arises, when a child in lower secondary or secondary level is found struggling to read because of poor performance in early grade. Due to the failure to grasp the basic reading and numeric skills in early grades, knowledge or academic degree which is inherent in the text/reading is halted risking dropout.

Numeracy 

Now let’s talk about numeracy or numerical skills. Basic numerical knowledge or mathematical skills are significant when a child steps into higher grade. The numeracy skills are also associated with daily activities of an individual and failures to possess these skills push an individual in misery. Who is to blame when a student in grade 4 fails to recognize number 6 and 9? 

Jumla is the 6^th poorest district with an HDI value of 0.35. The lack of proper road accessibility, poor government services, ever growing poverty, food shortage and growing dependency are some reasons why the district is getting behind. The child mortality rate is double the national average rate and dropout in primary level is second highest in the country. And the statistics in marginalized community is more alarming. According to early grade reading assessment conducted among 180 students from eight different schools revealed that seven percent of students from grade 2 and 3 failed to recognize single Nepali alphabets/letters and numbers.

There are plenty of challenges as well as potentialities. The schools mostly remain close in Jumla due to seasonal work, festivals, adverse weather and the absence of teacher. In the month of June/July the schools remain shut as most of the students go to collect yarchagumba to make some money. Children as young as 10/12 also run off the school to collect yarchagumba in the season. The poverty is the major factor that keeps the children out of school. People here struggle to join their hand and mouth and mostly spend their time in the field leaving their younger kids in care of older depriving their right to education. In Dashain and Tihar (Nepalese national festival), the schools remain close more than a month as teachers in schools are from outside district who returns back to school very late. In the winter, the weather gets really extreme and the schools are given two months holiday leaving the children do nothing. Beside, the local festivals, politically motivated strike, absenteeism/irregularities of teachers and very lack of manpower are all responsible to current failure.

On top of that, the schools in Jumla are very basic, some of them have to run the classes under the open sky. Even if they have buildings, the rooms are really small, dark and cold. Not all the students get chance to sit on the old rug leaving them vulnerable to cold. The concept of library and laboratory is far-fetched ideas. Some schools have few books and some resources donated by I/NGOs which are always locked in the tank and cupboard because they lack either skills or willpower to make their proper use. The government introduced the school breakfast program to the students to increase regularity and retention but couldn’t last long as they started to distribute the money instead. It was a remarkable effort as the children used to be regular and also get balanced food. But now, the parents receive the money of school breakfast which is either invested in father’s drink or mother’s oil leaving the children nowhere.

On the one hand schools are supposed to be open 220 days in an academic year and 192 days are expected to conduct teaching activities but in reality it is hard to find them open over 150 days in an average. In this scenario, how could we expect quality education in Jumla and other districts of Karnali?

Having said so, there are some progress made as well. In the initiation of nongovernmental organizations, every school has drafted School Improvement Plan (SIP) with the involvement of School Management Committee (SMC), Parent Teachers’ Association (PTA) and parents. They have made a five year plan to improve their school and ensure quality education based on child development theory and child-friendly teaching learning.  An active participation of school administration, SMCs, PTAs, parents mentored and coached by District Education Office (DEO) is essential for the overall development of a school. Need-based review in the curriculum is another significant part of it. The incorporation of local curriculum promoting professional and local resources is important. Jumla is famous for apple farming, the Jumli organic apples are renown all over Nepal. One of the schools of district named Satyabadi has executed a text book on apple plantation in its curriculum which is praiseworthy. The encouragement to endorse local need in curriculum should be planned and implemented. Besides, the trainings and skills to produce the teaching materials from local resources should be emphasized for sustainability. If the teachers and schools are able to produce and manage the teaching materials available from the local resources, there will be the end of dependency with ‘fish-giving’ I/NGOs.

Finally, the skilled teachers, child friendly teaching-learning environment based on child development theory, local resource backed teaching materials and their proper management monitored by responsible institutions and the conscious parents (reading environment at home) all contributes to improve the quality of education.

I am working in Jumla along with local community and schools with this motto of improving literacy and numerical skills. I am satisfied on what I am doing and proud of it.

(The original article was published in Setopati  http://m.setopati.net/blog/5549/)