Transforming local schools into community schools C.No. 2 A Concept Note on Transformation of Local Governmental Schools into Community Schools Background The Nepalese community has become more conscious in social, economic, political including the matters of national development. The level of consciousness has been raised to a height while coming to this post conflict era. The community people have shown interest in every issue concerning them. Education is the only basic ground for increase in the level of consciousness. Schools, campuses and universities are the common destinations for receiving education. But, the quality of education only exists when there is the direct participation of community people in the destinations of education. The community managed school (CMS) scheme was introduced in 2002 as part of the World Bank's Community School Support Program (CSSP) under its Learning and Innovation Loan (LIL). Currently (as of April 2007) the country has 2674 Community Managed Schools (CMSs) (9.5% of the total schools of the country) of which 83.4% are primary schools. These CMSs make up 3% of schools in the mountain region, 10% of schools in the hilly region, 9.3% of schools in the Terai region, and 6.8% of schools in the Kathmandu valley.[1] The government is aiming to handover the management of 8000 schools to the communities by the end of 2007. CN has initiated the campaign of transforming government schools into community owned schools in this context of growing educational gap between the products of private and government schools. This programme will be a contributing element for the establishment of Model Educational Village (MEV) that CN envisions for promoting child rights through education. Objectives Objective 1 Transform 5 local government schools of Duwachaur VDC, Sindhupalchok into community owned schools until 2009. Objective 2 Facilitate the SMCs of the transformed schools so as to generate competitive and qualitative products. Objective 3 Reduce the growing educational gap between the products of private and transferred schools of Duwachaur VDC. Working Area Duwachaur VDC, Sindhupalchok, Nepal Rationale The city centered private schools are mushrooming in the present context of Nepal. The rural and remote communities have no access to those schools and they are unaffordable too. The government schools are the destination for rural children. Education provided by the government schools isn't qualitative as compared to private ones. Teachers rarely visit the classes. What will be the future of the children studying in those schools? Thus, we find two contrasting human resources being generated from the schools of Nepal. The recent baseline survey run by Child Nepal (CN) at Duwachaur VDC of Sindhupalchok shows 5 government and 2 private schools being established. 1313 children are enrolling government schools whereas 147 have made private schools as their destination of learning. No doubt, the products from private schools are qualitative but still government schools have not been able to reach in the position of private ones. The products from theses schools aren't able to compete with the products of private schools. If the trend continues it will be impossible for Nepal to achieve the goal of EFA in its timeframe. Thus, it's necessary to reduce this tendency in which transformation of the government schools into community owned schools would be significant. Community must be facilitated for this purpose so that the community schools become their asset. Activities - School selection,
- Interaction with community, SMC, VDC, DEO and other concerned authority,
- Risk analysis,
- Agreement with the community for school transformation,
- Planning and programme design,
- Present proposal to the donor (working partner) on behalf of the community,
- Programme sanction,
- Run the programme and
- Monitoring and evaluation
Strategy - Through meaningful participation of the community people.
- To mobilize different working partners and donors.
- Inspire and activate the migrated local people towards own village development.
- Co-ordination with the Village Development Committee (VDC) District Development Committee (DDC) and concerned line agencies and ministries.
Expected Outcomes · The local government schools at Duwachaur will be transferred into community owned schools in 2 years. · Competitive and qualitative products will be generated from the transferred schools. · The growing educational gap among the students of private and government schools at Duwachaur will be reduced.
Posted on 2010-09-02
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