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Training the teachers keeps children in school

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Training the teachers keeps children in school

BARDIYA, 7 July 2008 (IRIN)

For sixth-grade student Srijana Biswakarma, school was a daily torment of being humiliated by her teacher in front of her 40 classmates. He often criticised the 15-year-old student for lagging behind the others, calling her a loser.

Her studies deteriorated and she eventually dropped out. "I decided to drop out of school and stay at home. I couldn't bear it anymore," Biswakarma told IRIN in the village of Tapri in Bardiya District, nearly 700km southwest of the capital Kathmandu.

She is not alone.

"In villages, children often quit school due to the negative attitude of their teachers," said Lalumaya Gurung, Biswakarma's psycho-social counsellor, who convinced her to return to school.

Gurung also counselled the teacher for several weeks; he eventually changed his behaviour after realising what a negative effect he was having on students.

There are more than 21,000 public primary schools in Nepal - most of them in rural areas - serving nearly 3.4 million children, according to the Department of Education. The teacher to student ratio is one to 40, with only 12 percent women.

The government's National Planning Commission estimates that nearly 89 percent of children (nearly 6.5 million) between five and 14 years old are enrolled in school (grades 1-10) but that dropout rates remain high.

According to Child Workers in Nepal (CWIN), a national NGO, the dropout rate at primary level is more than 40 percent, due to poverty, lack of teachers and poorly managed schools.

Corporal punishment

Corporal punishment, which includes physical and psychological abuse, was a contributing factor to dropout rates, according to the Centre for Victims of Torture (CVICT), an NGO specialising in the psycho-social treatment of victims of conflict, rape, sexual abuse and torture as well as corporal punishment in schools.

CVICT says the dropout problem due to corporal punishment is particularly pronounced in rural public schools where teachers are often frustrated and suffer from low morale, low salaries and crowded classrooms. On average, the ratio is one teacher for every 50 students - 100 in many rural villages.

Male teachers use corporal punishment, which causes many students to quit school and undermines their learning ability, she explained. At the same time, government plans to recruit more female teachers to government primary schools have yet to be implemented, she added.

"Many teachers, especially in the villages, need counselling," said Gurung, who has trained several schoolteachers in the district.

Teacher training
CVICT, with the support of Save the Children (Norway), has helped to train local social workers including Gurung in community-based psycho-social training; they in return counsel and train local teachers.

"It has made a lot of difference, especially for teachers like us who have to also deal with mentally disturbed children due to the armed conflict; violence in the home, and their impoverished conditions," said Himalaya Prasad Adhikari, a secondary school teacher, who was also trained in psycho-social counseling.

During the training, the teachers are taught how to analyse the children's problems, pinpoint their reasons for dropping out and how to motivate them to return to school.

Teachers trained in psychosocial counseling helping to retain children in schoolsAdhikari explained that thousands of teachers trained by CVICT counsellors were able to create better environments in schools and were successful in reducing rate of school dropout in villages.

"Due to the psycho-social training, the teachers have helped to keep a lot of children in schools. The students are also performing better in their class," said Dil Maya Biswakarma, a local community schoolteacher working in Gangabasti village of Bardiya district.

Over the past two to three years, nearly 1,246 school teachers have been trained in several districts of the western region's rural areas.

"Now we listen to students patiently. I never used to pay attention to their problems before the training," said teacher Anil Srivastava of the Sri Gayatri Primary School in Tapri.

He said many of his pupils had been affected by the conflict, which ended in 2006; domestic violence and food insecurity. Several students had been orphaned after their parents were killed or disappeared during the conflict period.

"We have changed as teachers due to the psycho-social care training. Now children no longer fear to come to us," said teacher Bijaya Ghimire, explaining that a lack of tolerance on the part of teachers towards their students often undermined their learning abilities.

Credit IRIN 2008
Copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2008
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

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more information
UNICEF report: Situation Analysis on the Children and Women in Nepal
Decades of damage to education

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