Consider the problem right at the heart of growth development and poverty

Jan Vikas Secondary School is located right at the heart of Kathmandu, capital city of Nepal.
Yet it has no computer, no internet, no OHP, no overhead projector nor many trained teachers. Almost all schools in Nepal and many developing countries are in similar situation.
If the education is the key for growth, development and poverty alleviation, these schools need urgent attention.

Students are dying of infection – (water supply is poor and so are lavatories). There is no hospital, nor any medical staff or medicine. Many parents cannot send their children to schools because they have to help them to collect woods, fodders or water and other household works. They do not know how harmful that will be for the life prospects of their children and no idea of world outside their village. How to communicate with them?

How to communicate with them on the role of education on development or adoption of technology and link between energy, environment and growth?

Only few have benefited from the development process. Top-down process has not worked.
How can people from bottom participate in the normal modern life?

This is the theme of GDP2007 conference. It is going to take place in Kathmandu. hpttp://www.hull.ac.uk/php/ecskrb/Kathmandu.html has more details.

If you are concerned please help by contributing to this conference by submitting papers and communicating your valuable ideas and considering cases like the Jan Vikas Secondary School. You can make a difference in the world!

Organisers GDP2007

An Appeal from the Jan Vikas Secondary School (JVLSS), Balkhu, Kathmandu 14, Nepal

Jan Vikas Secondary School is one of the few places for school level education of domestic servants or for children of domestic servants around the Balkhu area in Kathmandu. Established by K. N, Subedi and D. Achhami in 1978 under the Education Act Currently it has about 250 students from grade 1 to grade 11, almost all of them coming from the lowest income working families. It is situated on the top of Balkhu Hill, near the Kumari Club, off the Ring Road, just outside the boarder of the Central Campus of the Tribhuvan University in ward no. 14 of the Kathmandu Metro-Municipality. It spreads over about 0.36 hectares of land (7 ropanis and 9 annas). In year 2004 it has 14 teachers whose monthly salaries are covered by the grants received from the Kathmandu District Education Office. Salary per month of the primary, secondary and the Head Teacher are Rs.4100 ($55), Rs. 4900 ($65) and Rs.7500 ($100). This school has two buildings and 10 rooms. One of these building is temporary. The plantation of various kinds of trees in the surroundings by the school staff and the management committee has made the school environment more pleasant and peaceful. School community aims to develop it as model higher secondary school in near future for these domestic caretakers or for children of domestic caretakers who cannot afford to pay tuition fees in other private schools.

This school needs improvement in several fronts. First, it does not have enough rooms to go for higher secondary level. At least another building with seven or eight is necessary to run 9 to 11 grades. Secondly, it is poor in terms of educational materials such as audio-visual equipment, microscope and computer. It prevents use of teaching skills by teachers. It does not have even a single computer. It has no science lab for experiments, and has no library. Physical facilities including toilets, sports materials and playgrounds are inadequate. Thirdly, though tuition is free for all students and those in the primary level (grades 1-5) receive free basic textbooks, the poor family background affects students’ ability to follow lessons actively and to participate in school activities more creatively. Most of them are undernourished and physically weak and do not have even basic educational materials such as writing pads, pens and pencils. Fourth, nearly half of the teachers are untrained (three of them are with M.Ed., three with B.Ed., one with I. Ed., two with I.A. and five with SLC qualifications). Even those trained lack up to date knowledge of teaching techniques. Fifth, it does not have proper lights in the classrooms. Rainwater leaks from the roof of the temporary building; it needs reconstruction. The school needs a proper perimeter fence in place of barbed wire that presently surrounds it in order to protect school children.

Students, their parents and teachers think that the proper education is the only way to alleviate poverty and are keen in improving and upgrading this school. The possibility exists for extending and developing it as a model high or even higher secondary level school for pupils of low-income families not only of this area but for the most part of the Kathmandu valley. The school community and Kumari club likes to appeal to donor communities for assistance in the aforementioned areas. With Internet access the students would be able to communicate with students of schools in Nepal and those in other more advanced countries. The exchange of ideas in this manner can broaden the skills and ideas of both teachers and students and help in reducing poverty in the local community by means of education and bring development with human face.

Miss Manu Maya Bhattarai, Head Teacher and

School Management Committee

Jan Vikas Lower Secondary School, Balkhu, Kathmandu 14, PO Box 13381, Kathmandu, Nepal, Phone: 977-1-4332184.

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