Education in Pakistan: Hoshyar and al-Hamd

For the past year, I have been working with The Hoshyar Foundation, an American non-profit whose mission statement asserts:

The organization's primary mandate is increasing women's and girls' access to education in historically underserved localities, particularly South Asia and Afghanistan. We are keenly aware that the cultural politics of development work are best navigated when grantors work together with--rather than initiate or direct--local initiatives. The organization seeks to work with communities that have already identified a need to promote female education, and to make its grants of resources according to articulated needs of those communities.

Carla Petievich, the founder and executive director of Hoshyar, is a South Asian Studies scholar and professor whose years of research in Pakistan have made her keenly aware of the need to support education in the region. One of Hoshyar's most ambitious projects to date has been a collaboration with the al-Hamd Educational Girls High School. The al-Hamd School is located in Baagarian Village, just outside the city of Lahore, Pakistan. Founded by a remarkable woman with a dream to provide education to girls and young women, it serves more than 150 students in nursery through grade ten. Students contribute a nominal tuition fee - with books, materials and uniforms provided. The school serves an impoverished semi-rural community of families eager to educate their children and enthusiastic about the opportunities that al-Hamd is providing. In May, with financial assistance from Hoshyar, al-Hamd completed construction on a brand-new building, setting the stage for an exciting future in the village.

My own work with Hoshyar and al-Hamd involves curriculum and pedagogy - the teaching practices that go on within the walls of the new building. I visited Pakistan last September to observe the school and to interview faculty and students. I also had the opportunity to meet other educators in Lahore, an introduction to the professional community working for school reform in the area. My next visit will be in January, 2010 when I'll be overseeing a training workshop for al-Hamd's teachers and administrators. Upcoming posts will describe this project in more detail as well as my hopes for al-Hamd and other Hoshyar projects that fuel my excitement about working in Pakistan.

-Beth

RBPOP: Rato Bangala Partnership in Outreach Programme

I've already written much about the achievements of the Rato Bangala School and Foundation throughout Nepal ... but there's more. Funded by a percentage of the school fees paid by parents of Rato Bangala Kathmandu, the Partnership in Outreach Programme (RBPOP) was formed in 2002 to provide leadership training, teacher training and scholarships to needy students from fifty schools in five rural districts throughout the country. There are training modules for administrators, a two-and-a-half month residential Skill Development Training for teachers and provision of school fees, uniforms, stationery, book bags and extra reading material for scholarship students. In addition, a select number of children are offered the opportunity to enroll at Rato Bangala Kathmandu, with full tuition and boarding fees covered by RBPOP.

One of my favorite pieces of RBPOP's work is the "tin trunk" program. Partner schools in rural areas are provided with a simple trunk filled with transformative teaching materials. There are books, hands-on math materials, maps and (as pictured above) hand puppets, carefully designed by RBPOP staff to complement the cultures of the region. I quote:

The set contains six puppets each from the Himalayan, Mountain and Tarai regions. People are represented in their local costumes on one side of the puppet, and, on the other side are animals found in that region. The grandparents wear the most traditional and ornate costumes, (Sherpa, Bahun/Chhetri and Tharu), the parents wear less traditional ones, and the children's clothes are modern. These puppets inspire children to know the traditional costumes, the joint family structure, and about animals found in these areas.

The tin trunks contain further treasures: magnets, balloons, globes, blocks, paints and brushes, skipping ropes ... a truly magical collection for the chronically under-equipped schools of rural Nepal. But there is more to educational reform than the concrete, quantifiable tools-of-the-trade. What makes Rato Bangala so unique and so revolutionary is powerful and considered pedagogy - a basic philosophy and set of educational principles that underlie and inform everything they do. The educators of Rato Bangala believe that children construct meaning from the experiences and environments around them. They believe in empowering teachers as valued and competent professionals. And they believe that the kind of schooling that truly supports open-ended thinking and questioning will bring about real change in Nepal. I am honored to continue to be a part of this visionary organization.

If you would like to make a donation to support the work of the Rato Bangala Foundation, please contact me: bnorford@mac.com. Your contribution will make a difference to the children and teachers of Nepal. (Note: Contributions are not yet tax-deductible in the US, but we're working on it.)

-Beth

Teacher Training at Rato Bangala - An International Collaboration for Excellence

From the literature of the Rato Bangala Foundation:

The Primary Teaching Training Programme is a unique teacher training programme in Nepal that has been inspired by the work of three educational institutions: Rato Bangala Foundation, Kathmandu University and Bank Street College of Education (in New York).

This one simple sentence sums up a remarkable endeavor to change the face of early education in Nepal. The Rato Bangala Foundation's teacher training course offers two "tracks": one aimed at those who have completed a highschool education and the other leading to a bachelor's degree from Kathmandu University. Each offers classwork in educational philosophy, social studies, language arts, mathematics, science/environmental education, the arts and physical education. Supervised fieldwork is a critical component of students' experience and each is mentored by an advisor and assigned to a small group of fellow trainees for ongoing discussion, feedback and sharing of experience. The curriculum is based in the principles of progressive education and classwork involves not simply lectures and reading but hands-on experiences which model those practiced with children. Prospective teachers learn to observe children closely, to document their observations and to use this knowledge to devise effective teaching strategies. Language arts students take part in a writer's workshop, composing and "publishing" literature of their own. Math training involves creation of charts, use of manipulatives and group problem-solving exercises. Social studies is based in the idea of the "community as classroom" and focuses on the creation of meaning in a complex and changing world.

To quote once more from Rato Bangala's promotional material:

The strength of this programme lies in the integration of theory and practice: lessons learnt in the classrooms are practiced in the field and new knowledge is built on the experience.

Seventeen years into the Rato Bangala "experiment", their work is generating ever greater international attention and acclaim. Teacher training is a key component of the Foundation's vision for change.

If you would like to make a donation to support the work of the Rato Bangala Foundation, please contact me: bnorford@mac.com. Your contribution will make a difference to the children and teachers of Nepal.
-Beth

Rato Bangala Kitab - Quality Children's Literature for Nepal

In 1992, during the very first teacher-training session at Rato Bangala we organized a writing workshop for the faculty. Each teacher was asked to compose and illustrate a children's story, then to share his/her work with the group and to make revisions before submitting a final draft. The results were amazing! We discovered a wealth of talent among that initial group of educators and from that first set of books came the inaugural title published by Rato Bangala Kitab, the publishing division of the Rato Bangala Foundation. Mangale Ko Changa, by Punyasheel Gautam, is the story of two boys and a kite, composed in rhyming Nepali verse and illustrated (using a combination of collage and tempera paint) by the author. Published in 1993, it has quickly become a classic.

Since then, Rato Bangala Kitab has expanded to include an impressive list of titles published in Nepali, English and over a dozen other regional languages. To list just a few: The Adventures Of A Nepali Frog recounts the travels of an intrepid amphibian; Kaag Kaag Kauwa introduces the alphabet to young children; Khadkhadai is set in the Nepali jungle; and Chhandaka Ek Saya Ek Kabita presents 101 poems in traditional Nepali rhyming meter. These books are available for purchase by families and schools throughout the country, and several are also included in the collected learning materials distributed to rural schools by the foundation. (More about this project to come.) The Foundation continues to sponsor writer's workshops and the work of producing quality literature for Nepali children moves forward.

A complete catalog of Rato Bangala Kitab titles is available at http://www.rbf.org.np/catalogue.html.

-Beth

Rato Bangala: It's Not Just A School ... It's A Foundation

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm very proud of my ongoing affiliation with the Rato Bangala School, a wonderful example of progressive education at work in Nepal. But there's more to Rato Bangala than just a school for kids from the Kathmandu area. From our very first conversations, all of us involved in this project envisioned an institution that would impact education for children throughout the region, not simply those from a particular economic class or location. With this mission in mind the Rato Bangala Foundation was begun. Because I don't think I can say it better myself, I will quote now from the Foundation's mission statement:

Since 2002, the Rato Bangala Foundation has been immersed in the challenging task of improving the quality of education in Nepal, with primary focus on schools run by the government. To fulfill its mission, RBF trains teachers, develops teaching/learning material and publishes children's literature. In line with its philosophy the Foundation works in formal collaboration with the Department of Education of the Government of Nepal, and partners with various agencies and organizations which are engaged in the task of improving teaching in the classroom ... Taking a 'whole school' approach, the Foundation works with parents, teachers, administrators as well as students so that all get a sense of empowerment and ownership towards the institution and its development.

RBF's approach is multi-faceted and I will use my next few blog posts to describe various components of their work. First up: books!

-Beth

If you would like to make a donation to support the work of the Rato Bangala Foundation, please contact me: bnorford@mac.com. Your contribution will make a difference to the children and teachers of Nepal. (Note: Contributions are not yet tax-deductible in the US, but we're working on it.)

Education in India - A Subjective Overview

Let me state from the outset of this post that I am not a formal scholar of South Asian educational history and there’s obviously much that I don’t yet know about the topic. My impressions and opinions are based on a combination of reading, observation and experience. I was a middle and high-school student in India myself - at an international school that, while certainly not typical, provided me with my first exposure to education in the region. Since then I’ve been lucky enough to work and study further in India, Nepal and Pakistan … and now to share my thoughts on those experiences. I repeat my usual entreaty. I invite those who read this blog to think of it as an online conversation and to respond to my statements, to question my opinions or to expand on what I have to say.

Many, many cultural, religious and political traditions have informed the practice of education in South Asia over centuries (and I hope to address some of these in future posts). But the contemporary system is based mainly in European and British pedagogical thinking. (Since each of the countries in the subcontinent has a unique modern history, I’ll focus only on India for the rest of this post.) In India, European schooling was introduced first by Christian missionaries and then augmented by the colonial powers (mainly British) that assumed political control of the region. Most classrooms look much like those in the West: a teacher, a blackboard, students at desks or benches working from textbooks. The curriculum is based on the standard “3 R’s”. The primary medium of instruction for many schools is English; for others it is the language of the local region. Class sizes tend to be large– sometimes 50 or above. As a rule, tests are paramount as assessment tools in Indian schools and there is a rigorous testing schedule in all subject areas. There are several standardized national examinations that hold tremendous weight and the most important of these are administered in grades 10 and 12. Some schools are religiously based, some are government-run and some are private but secular.

Pedagogically, most Indian schools rely on a model that stresses repetition, memorization of facts and methodology, and the primacy of teachers and texts as intellectual authorities. There is very little room for experience-based learning, for open-ended experimentation and discussion, or for critical thinking that might challenge sanctioned content and procedure. There ARE advantages to this system. Indian students tend to be disciplined scholars with an impressive mastery of subject matter. But they often find themselves at a loss when asked to answer open-ended questions or to formulate their own theories or opinions. Many students who have moved from Indian schools to American colleges and universities say they’ve found themselves better-prepared than their Western peers in math and science, but at a disadvantage when asked to write papers in the arts or social sciences.

My own agenda should be clear by now. I am a progressive educator who believes in the value of rich experience, collaboration, the arts and critical thinking – all largely absent in the typical Indian classroom. That’s the bad news … but there’s much to celebrate as well. There have always been alternatives in India and there certainly are now. There is an amazing range of schools, pedagogies, teaching methods and educational experiences available for kids and parents, and an incredible community of educators who administer these programs. Further, my sense is that now, more than at any time in the past few centuries perhaps, a major movement toward rethinking learning and pedagogy is gaining momentum. As India assumes a new and increasingly powerful role in the international community, parents are recognizing that their children need more than the ability to memorize and catalog facts. Most don’t know what form such an alternative might take and are anxious about moving away from a system that they know. Addressing these concerns is the work of progressive education and I’m looking forward to being part of that work.

-Beth