Something on education I appear to have written in 1997-98 when I was in Nepal for a longish stay. It's basically some observations about education in Nepal--mainly how appears to be on a path it shouldn't be.
In 2009-10, when data for 2011 Census Report was collected, children in the last year of kindergarten, five-year olds, numbered 661K. The group completed their schooling -- grade 12 -- in 2022. Less than 10% made it through!
This blog looks how the totally corrupt and flawed education system does that and the consequence of that for a vast majority of the population.
Studies in the US have demonstrated differential treatment of black students by white teachers affecting their learning outcomes as well as, in the long-term, their lives. 80% of public school teachers in the US are white.
In Nepal, disproportionately high percent of school teachers are Khas-aryas, the hill so-called high caste Hindu. How do they treat students belonging to other castes? Likely not the same way they do their caste and that likely has affected the educational achievements of students of other castes, as well as their lives later on.
If, as an adult, you are CONVINCED that your academic institution SUCCEEDED in providing an excellent education, BUT has made you an ardent and blind supporter of the institution -- approving of everything it says, does, represents, and stands for unquestioningly -- then it failed you. Here are some examples of that from Nepal.
One of the many consequences of low science literacy and high level of religiosity and the attendant belief in superstitions in the highly patriarchal Brahmanic society of Nepal is unabashed cruelty to females. One way the cruelty is meted out is in the way they are blamed for a newborn's sex as it that were determined by gestation and birthing. Science says otherwise, of course!
Nepali teachers do NOT use humor as much as they should. I do. And so in my workshops for them, I use it to demonstrate its effectiveness. Follow link for short videos of me in action -- telling jokes and making teachers and students laugh, to grab their attention and hold it.
In part II of this two-part blog, I shred the contents of a grade 12 chemistry paper the students took last month. It's full of mistakes showing how little attention to details the examiners and board have paid in creating it. The contents also show how the syllabus has NOT been revised and updated at all to reflect newer practices and topics that have evolved over the last few decades etc., indicating how the whole point is just to put the students through a wringer.
A look at how the board managing the grade 12 examinations have failed the students. The examinations, originally slated for May, was cancelled and, finally, in October, rescheduled for November. The examination, supposed to consist of questions papers in the new format, did go ahead in spite of the student not having seen any sample papers prior to it.
What's more, analyzing the chemistry paper, it had some major issues. The whole exercise, as far as I am concerned, has amounted to putting the students through a wringer.
Nepanglish is Nepal's very own English, but it's a little beast of a language. It inflicts a lot of harm in many children, holding them back. If we are to improve the quality of our education, we must do away with Nepanglish and use and teach English English.
Even NOW as someone who majored in and taught chemistry, were I to pretend to be a grade 11 or 12 Science student in Nepal and take their Chemistry examination, I will likely not get a good grade. I wouldn't be surprised if I even fail. The reason? The questions are just completely off and what is expected as responses are also ridiculous.
What many in Nepal still struggle to understand is that if we teach students how to think, they can learn, on their own, ways to commit to memory what they must to pass examinations, something I am trying to get across in my teacher education program.