TFN hosts event to strengthen public education in Nepal
KATHMANDU: Teach For Nepal (TFN) hosted the Collective Leadership for Strengthening Public Education, a gathering of alumni, board members, government representatives, and education advisors, in Kathmandu on Monday.
Attended by the founder of Teach For All, Wendy Kopp, and eleven batches of alumni from the TFN programme, the event was used to reiterate the mission behind TFN, followed by a conversation between Amina Singh of the Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM) and Wendy Kopp.
Chief guest Bishnu Rimal, advisor to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, addressed the coalition of educators serving communities in Nepal’s remote locations by asking them if the government was the only entity responsible for the current landscape of education in Nepal. He lamented the lack of quality education, claiming the current system is mechanising people rather than preparing them for the demands of employers in the 21st century.
Alumnus Bijaya Mani Paudel, from the first batch of TFN who served in Simle, Lalitpur, and taught science, shared the impact of this experience on himself and his students. Paudel, the SLC topper, secured a 100% pass rate in science during his tenure while advocating for social justice, educator responsibility, and student welfare. Paudel said the conditions of classrooms today determine the conditions of infrastructure, institutes, and industries 25 years from now.
Sixteen years since its inception, TFN now looks to the future.
Swastika Shrestha, co-founder and CEO of TFN, announced the organisation’s pivot to Teach For Nepal 2.0. Shrestha said the restrictions to providing a quality education include conditions at students’ homes, responsibilities, child marriage, and access to classrooms. To address these root causes, the first objective of this new phase is to inject youthful intervention in these communities to change the classroom and bring much-needed energy to the students’ routines. The second objective is to prepare a drastic shift in the current system of education. This is achieved through the efforts of alumni who have witnessed the conditions of classrooms in rural communities firsthand and now seek to bring change through collaboration, investment, entrepreneurship, coalition ventures, and influencing government policies.
TFN’s leadership programme has 435 graduates to date. There are 43 youthful educators in the field in the 12th and current batch of classroom leaders, accompanied by 36 fellows.
Kiran Nepal, Chairman of the TFN board, called for teaching fellows in the years to come. This programme prepares the youth not just for a career in education but as changemakers in society – imparting leadership skills, solidifying ideals of social justice, and fostering ideas for income generation and creativity. He highlighted the stipend available for fellows committing to two years of teaching in schools in rural Nepal.
TFN’s leadership training has the potential to revolutionise one’s personal life as well as the lives of their cohort, students, and the communities they live in.
