{"id":13934,"date":"2018-03-21T15:47:19","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T10:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dorjegurung.com\/blog\/?p=13934"},"modified":"2026-03-13T22:03:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T22:03:33","slug":"my-my-hey-hey-my-english-book-has-it-yay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/my-my-hey-hey-my-english-book-has-it-yay\/","title":{"rendered":"My My, Hey Hey, My English Book Has It Yay!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The quality of textbooks produced and published in Nepal is poor, the ones issued — for free — by the government to students at public (government) schools, worse than those issued by private schools. The blog post When A Textbook In Nepal Fail Children<\/a><\/em>, details the issues with a Grade 1 textbook issued to my nephew by his school, a private school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following came from Grade 3 My English Book issued by the government. (Children in Grade 3 would be 8 years old, if they started school at the right age.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The story of a man with two wives…in Grade 3 My English Book, issued by the government of #Nepal<\/a> to public schools in the country. pic.twitter.com\/hTYbxSravO<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Dorje Gurung (@Dorje_sDooing) March 21, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polygamy is against the law, though I have been told it does happen. One of the reasons for that is the lack of enforcement of the law. The other reason is that Nepal is a highly patriarchal society<\/a> and having multiple wives is viewed as a status symbol. Back in the nineties, I discovered having (a) mistress is also a status symbol<\/a> in Kathmandu!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of years ago, an acquaintance of a cousin of mine sharing details of his family, revealed the fact that his father had two wives! He basically bragged about the fact that the father was such a “player” that he got away with it! At the time, the father was away visiting his much younger wife in another city!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dol Bahadur Khadka whose children’s education<\/a> COMMITTED has been supporting following his death in Qatar<\/a>, had two wives!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another page from the same book. This one is supposed to be the kid’s song The Hokey Pokey<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Hokey Pokey in Grade 3 My English Book, issued by Govwrnment of #Nepal<\/a> 2 public schools in d country. pic.twitter.com\/36AdxiEx7V<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Dorje Gurung (@Dorje_sDooing) March 21, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you can see, they have done a number of things to the song! The author has taken complete liberty with the title. What’s the foot in the original song has become the hand in this, the five verse song has been reduced to two, and those are just for a start! Anyway…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One more page from the same book. This one is supposed to be a phone conversation between two friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Another one from Grade 3 My English Book. This one’s a phone conversation between two friends. D highlighted bit is hilarious! pic.twitter.com\/0v2TABNdxI<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Dorje Gurung (@Dorje_sDooing) March 22, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is something commendable about the “Hello!” Unit though. They have used a Tibetan name (Pemba) for one of the characters!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A vast majority of the school-going children attend public (government) schools. Many of them in a district like Jajarkot, they are lucky if they get their hands on their textbooks, forget about quality textbooks!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jajarkot district. “Final exams came but the books didn’t.” 20% students yet to receive textbooks! #NepalEducation<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/J1kCqqA0N1<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Dorje Gurung (@Dorje_sDooing) December 27, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would love to learn about all the steps and processes involved in a textbook going from the hands of the author as a manuscript to the hands of our children as their textbook. Something must go horribly wrong in one or more of the steps or processes. Or, the whole system could be completely flawed and corrupt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don’t happen to know anything about that, do you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

* * * * * * * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Added after the publication of the blog post because of their relevance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kantipur (Aug. 6, 2018). \u0905\u0928\u0941\u0938\u0928\u094d\u0927\u093e\u0928\u092e\u0948 \u092c\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u094b \u090f\u0915 \u0935\u0930\u094d\u0937<\/a> | (A Year Gone Already in Investigation). This is about the corruption case Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has brought against Sajha Prakashan, public publishing house that produces all the textbooks public educational institution around the country use. “\u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e\u091a\u093e\u0930\u0940\u0915\u093e \u0905\u0928\u0941\u0938\u093e\u0930 [\u092e\u0939\u093e\u092a\u094d\u0930\u092c\u0928\u094d\u0927\u0915 \u0921\u094b\u0932\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0938\u093e\u0926] \u0936\u0930\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0915\u0940 \u0936\u094d\u0930\u0940\u092e\u0924\u0940\u0915\u094b \u0928\u093e\u092e\u092e\u093e \u0930\u0939\u0947\u0915\u094b \u0905\u0915\u094d\u0938\u092b\u094b\u0930\u094d\u0921 \u092a\u092c\u094d\u0932\u093f\u0915\u0947\u0938\u0928 \u0930 \u0938\u092e\u093f\u0938\u092e \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u093e\u0936\u0928 \u0928\u093e\u092e\u0915 \u0938\u0902\u0938\u094d\u0925\u093e \u0936\u0930\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0915\u0948 \u0930\u0939\u0947\u0915\u094b \u0930 \u0938\u092e\u093e\u0928 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u0943\u0924\u093f\u0915\u094b \u0938\u0902\u0938\u094d\u0925\u093e\u0915\u093e \u0938\u091e\u094d\u091a\u093e\u0932\u0915 \u0938\u093e\u091d\u093e \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u093e\u0936\u0928\u092e\u093e \u092a\u0926\u093e\u0927\u093f\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0940 \u092c\u0928\u094d\u0928\u0941 \u0928\u093f\u092f\u092e\u0935\u093e\u0932\u0940\u0935\u093f\u092a\u0930\u0940\u0924 \u091b\u202f\u0964”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nepali Times<\/em> (Sept. 14, 2018). After quantity, Nepal\u2019s education needs quality<\/a>. “Inadequate training of teachers and over-reliance on defective textbooks keeps learning sub-standard.” [Added Sept. 20, 2018.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nepali Times<\/em> (Aug. 7-13, 2015). U r welcome, wanna cu ASAP 4 a drink<\/a>. “Textbooks in Nepal\u2019s schools aren\u2019t just outdated, they are outrageously bad.” [Added Sept. 20, 2018.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some issues with Grade 3 My English Book, a book for eight-year old children attending government (public) schools in Nepal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":13983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"My My, Hey Hey, My English Book Has It Yay! #Nepal","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33],"tags":[143,622,523,330],"class_list":["post-13934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nepal-education-parenting","tag-government-school-education","tag-nepali-school-textbook","tag-school-textbook","tag-teaching-in-nepal"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Grade-3-My-English-Book-story-feat-image.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Jbro-3CK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29767,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13934\/revisions\/29767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}