Education is one of Himalayan Trust’s prime projects. The first education project began with the building of its first school in Khumjung village in 1960 and after that, more than 27 schools have been built and continued to support them. Today, there is a total of 60 schools in the same area where the 27 Himalayan Trust schools are located. In order to provide equal opportunity for quality education in the same area, Himalayan Trust has taken the responsibility to support all these 60 schools.
The Education Sector aims to improve the quality of education in local schools to retain students, promote local teachers and develop child-friendly education system. The area of intervention in the education sector includes rebuilding earthquake damaged schools, repairing and improving facilities in schools; operating schools in child friendly environment and improving quality of education with dedicated and trained teachers; support students to secure higher educations to work in different sectors including teaching job at local schools; increasing the rate of students learning achievement; managing and operating ECED classroom effectively; empowering school management committees in governance and decision making.
School-Based Teachers Training Programme (SBTTP)
SBTTP is a three years programme of Himalayan Trust Nepal initiated in 2016 with the funding from Himalayan Trust New Zealand. The HTN training team has been conducting child-centered teachers training in 11 basic schools of lower Khumbu, which includes Taksindu, Chulemu, Hewa, Phulele, Juving, Hattemu, Dipjyoti, Kharikhola, Bumburee, Mera, and Buksa. The training has directly benefited 62 teachers (male – 34 and female-27), 428 students ( male-211 and female 217) and 254 parents (male-97 and female-157).
The training has been considered effective by the beneficiaries as it is different than the previous ones. This training is effective as it involves practical skills. The HTN trainers work along with the subject teachers and develop child-centered teaching materials, prepares unit and lesson plan by using local teaching materials, conduct meeting with parents and stakeholders to improve the literacy rates of children.
Supply of all necessary teaching materials:
Teaching materials required for the schools and students are the most important needs for the smooth teaching and learning environment of schools. Students and schools located in the remote mountain villages face extreme difficulties in procuring these supplies due to financial constraints of the families and lack of easy access to markets. Himalayan Trust, therefore, meets all these requirements to the students, teachers, and schools. The supplies of these materials for the 60 schools are divided into six clusters in order to ease the distribution. The supplies are delivered to the respective schools by air, porters or trucks according to available means.
Maintenance and extension:
Himalayan Trust supports for maintenance, extension, and restoration of the schools which lack financial resources of their own. On receiving petitions from the School Management Committee, the Himalayan Trust Nepal Committee examines all such petitions and makes decisions. Appropriate petitions are entertained only if local community agrees to be as part of the project such as sharing the cost, providing free labor and supervising and reporting the progress of the project.
Scholarship
Himalayan Trust provides scholarships to many worthy students to pursue higher studies after their successful completion of high school education (SLC) from Solukhumbu district. The scholarships have enabled many students from the remote mountain villages to achieve medical doctors, foresters, engineers, teachers, nurses and successful business entrepreneurs. Certain numbers of scholarships are reserved for students who are interested in technical and vocational education. These skills are important for easy employment of the students and also meeting the requirement of services for the local community.
Adult Education and women literacy classes
Adult education and women literacy classes were conducted to literate the village men and women who have not attended schools due to family workload since 1997. The local school teachers conducted these classes in the evening when they are free from their domestic work. Within a few years, we managed to literate most of these men and women and attendance in the classes is dropping because of less number of illiterate people. Therefore, there is no need to continue the classes in most of the villages. But classes can be resumed when such need arises.
