The Challenges of Education in Nepal Posted December 26, 2016 by Director Shenpen

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In 1951, 9,000 students were registered in primary schools across Nepal and only 1,700 students were engaged in secondary level education. At that time, Nepal counted only two colleges. There was no university. The impact of this was that only 5% of the adult population was educated in a modern way (Moore, 2014). Moore says: “from 1971 to 2001, primary school numbers grew from 400,000 to 3.9 million, secondary school increased from 120,000 to 1.5 million and post-secondary level increased from 17,000 to 210,000” (Ibid.).

Illiteracy at that time was the norm. Nowadays, the United Nations evaluates that only 31% of the global population of Nepal doesn’t know how to write and read. Unfortunately, a gender differentiation will teach that too often, girls are still kept away from the school benches, as a bit more than 65% of women in Nepal are illiterate.

Les défis de l'éducation au Népal 2

We here at Shenpen strongly believe that education helps to break the vicious circle of poverty. A good education is the foundation for a better life, for the individual person as well as for the whole society. This is why every year we give the gift of knowledge to as many disadvantaged children as possible.

This year, we are sponsoring the education of 13 students from Class One to Class 10. In this special education edition, we will introduce to you Tenzin, Shenpen’s first sponsored-student and one of our new Class 10 graduates.

We would also like to present to you our new education project in Dhola, where we help 55 families cover expenses related to education and offer a tiffin (snack) program because Shenpen also believes that education is not only about learning, it is also about the condition in which you have to learn. School meals are an efficient method to help students in developing countries to remain at school, improve the school’s presence as well as the graduation rates.

Our education project in Dhola wouldn’t be possible without the involvement of our long-term partner, CHANCE for Nepal (UK). In this edition, Barbara Datson, the founder of this organization, will share her commitment to Nepal.

We hope you will enjoy the reading!

Les défis de l'éducation au Népal
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MOORE, C. (2014). “7 facts about Education in Nepal”. http://borgenproject.org/facts-about-education-in-nepal/ [consulted on August 2016].
PHASE Worldwide. (2015) “Education”. http://phaseworldwide.org/education/ [consulted on August 2016].
ALTMAN, M.J. (2015). “Around the World in 80,000 Schools”. https://hdp.press/around-the-world-in-80-000-schools-f1e0e487f4d9#.hkhga11je [consulted on September 2016].