| GP |
Posted
on 04-Sep-03 03:22 PM
Hi!
A few weeks back, I had a chat with an officer in UNESCO.
It was about sending a few dozen books to schools in Nepal
through UNESCO's fund. Well, in our talk she was telling that
a lot of Japanese Volunteers have paid huge money to
Nepal in constructing schools. She was surprised that why
the kids in near by villages don't attend schools?
It was a good question and excellent observation.
My answer to her: The biggest change in Japan and Korea
was to spend a lot of money and effort on educating female
kids. The female upon growing to adult were not seen to be
contributing directly to the economy of the country, but,
they understood the value of education and were in fact
acting as 24-8 = 16hours teacher at home to their kids.
Similarly, peoples in nepal do not know the power of education,
i.e. how it can change their lifestyle and therefore, they
don't see reasons for sending their kids to schools for
education.
So, what ?
So, the parents don't have motivation to send their kids to
schools despite of having excellent school buildings in their
neighborhood.
What is the solution?
They need to be offered with an item that can motivate them.
What I told her ?
Well, the peoples in those neighborhood don't know the power
of education, and its difficult to motivate them: because parents
themselves are uneducated.
So, if you want to see the changes. You introduce the things that
was introduced in Japan and Korea about 50years ago.
What is that ?
Free Lunch. I told her that best way to motivate the parents
in poverty stricken areas is to offer free lunch just the same
way they were offered in Japan. The kids in neighborhood
will surely go to school primarily to get free lunch, and then,
teachers should teach them and give education.
I told the officer that lets try by selecting a primary school
in remote district. Offer free lunch (My idea: a glass of
milk: 200ml, an egg, and a samosa or bread), and observe
the differences before and after the free lunch. If it
gets success to make differences, then, we have to widen
the program.
What was the cost?
I told her it can be around: 1 million rupees for 100 student
capacity school.
Who pays:
UNESCO or some volunteer org.
Who monitor?
A former (and retired) japanese teacher who has interest in Nepal.
What happens if kids in neighboring school switch to this school?
I told her that we have to fix area before we offer free lunch.
To confirm that the kids in the designated area attend the school.
After hearing this proposal, the officer told me that she will pass
the proposal to UNESCO regional office. In mast last telephone
talk she told that it seems that she may be on the way to get
approval.
So, what I need ?
I should be prepared with the name of the school and its address
and tentative number of kids in the area supposed to be covered
by the school and the area where less number of kids are going to
school.
I am looking forward to see your response and if the proposal
is agreed, I will have to pass the name of the school. IF Sajhaities
have any specific schools in their mind, please, let me know the
outline of the school and kids around the area. As I am from
Pokhara, I don't want to propose schools that I know.
I will be meeting her on Sept 27. I have to talk on this proposal
in the meeting.
GP
PS: Fortunately or unfortunately, I am at this moment in
USA as a visiting research scholar in a university. I will be
back to japan on Sept. 25th.
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