A day at school!

After a 15-minute walk through the village center and the weaving farm trails past cows, goats and chickens, we arrive at work, the Prajwal School. The Prajwal School was founded 21 years ago by a 16 year-old Nepali visionary named Purna Shrestha. The school’s mission is to provide quality education to all students, regardless of gender, religion, caste or socio-economic status—an extremely radical approach in a country with a broken-education system and a literacy rate of 48%. In conjunction with the school’s progressive approach to education, we have come with Tara Education, a nonprofit aimed at strengthening teaching practices across Nepal. Together we are working to replace authoritarian teaching styles and mindless rote-memorization with child-centered education: lessons that incorporate group work, inspire creativity, and challenge students to think beyond the textbook. Here is a day in our life:

Cassie on the road to school.

If you arrive on time you can enter through the main gate

And get a good spot in the parking lot.

But if you sleep through your alarm, you have to sneak in the back door

Each day commences with morning assembly

We usually start our day with a meeting in our library office.... which is frequently interrupted by the school's mascot  

Unfortunately we can't use the school's water fountain

We spend our days working with teachers to introduce new teaching methods and collaborating on ways to improve the education of the students

Cassie engaged in discussion

A couple of the ideas we have introduced are:

1) Raising hands (and not all screaming out the answer in unison at the top of their lungs)

Greatest risk associated with raising hands: students dislocating limbs when asked to hold in their answer

2) Working in groups- in order to encourage collaboration and student accountability for their own learning

Proud of their hard work!

Greatest risk associated with group work: Students succumb to the Nepali concept of personal space and group work turns into group cuddle-fest

One thing is for certain: students are eager to learn and excited to share their work with their classmates and teachers

Happy students = happy teachers

Students working to improve their English skills in a grammar class, and share their independent work with the class

Prajwal's diverse ethnic makeup: You can see Tibetan, Hindu and Newari features in these cute nursery faces

In the afternoons we teach music class

Prajwal students attend their first ever music class

Learning about rhythm

Having a blast playing clapping games

At the end of the day the students pile on the bus to head back to their respective villages (some as far as two hours away!)

And in true Nepali fashion, the teachers celebrate! We sent the students home early in order to celebrate Mary's birthday (the founder of Tara education) with the Prajwal staff