Common sense will tell you that a five year old child in any country can’t kneel on a wooden bench for 7 hours a day, much less do so and stay focused on learning the alphabet. Nonetheless, in rural Nepal that’s exactly what they’re expected to do.
Classrooms in Nepal aren’t built with small children in mind. They have dirt floors, hard benches, high tables, and are devoid of decoration. Although he’s never seen a U.S. style classroom, our partner Neel came up with the innovative idea of renovating a Grade 1 classroom so that it was fitted to small children. He put down carpet and floor cushions, built custom tables only 8-inches tall, and painted the walls with the Nepali alphabet, English alphabet, pictures for every letter, colors, numbers, and more. The feel and function of the classroom was so transformed, and the quality of experience for the children was so much better, that he wanted to expand the project to 8 other schools in the area.
Given Neel’s innovation and initiative, plus the great success of the pilot classroom, We agreed to completely fund one classroom renovation at the Batase school where we had given some prior assistance. With the generous support of an individual donor, we then funded one more.
Check out these photos of our new classrooms…