The e-Newsletter of the Gender Network

March/April 2012 | Vol. 6, No. 1

Teacher training means better education for Nepali girls and boys
by Pamposh Dhar, ADB Consultant An innovative project helps children raise their self-esteem, offers jobs to women from poor families, and increases social inclusion in Nepals primary schools. An innovative project in Nepal has helped counter centuries of gender and ethnic discrimination to make primary school education a more rewarding experience for girls, especially those from the countrys disadvantaged lower castes and indigenous communities. At the same time, the project has laid the foundations for higher recruitment of women teachers. The project was a follow-up to ADBs first Primary Education Development Project, and aimed to establish an effective and sustainable teacher education system for primary education. It was to build the capacity for policy making, planning, and managing teacher training programs; enhance the professional skills of teachers by training trainers and teachers, and developing curriculum and materials; and improve access to basic education for girls and other disadvantaged groups by encouraging the increased recruitment of teachers from these groups, and providing fellowships for pre-service training to women and candidates from other disadvantaged groups. The project had four components - building the institutional capacity of the National Center for Education Development, primary teacher training centers, and the Distance Education Center to train primary school teachers by developing staff skills and improving facilities; developing teacher education curriculum and teaching-learning materials; training teachers, and educational administrators and managers; and educating teachers to better serve the needs of girls and other disadvantaged groups. The ADB-supported Teacher Education Project (2002-2009) included a crucial component to educate primary school teachers and administrators to minimize the discrimination traditionally faced by girls and by children both male and female from the Janajati and Dalit communities.1 It sensitized 6,500 teachers, trainers of teachers, school officials, and community members about the nature and extent of discrimination traditionally faced by girls and schoolchildren from disadvantaged groups, and then suggested ways to minimize such discrimination and help the children have higher self-esteem and confidence. About half of those sensitized were women. Through the project, such sensitization became part of regular education for primary school teachers and administrators, included in the training curriculum and teaching materials developed during the project. By strengthening institutional capacity to train primary school teachers, as well as by actual training programs, the project improved the quality of classroom teaching, contributing to
1

The Janajati are Nepals indigenous communities. Dalits are groups that have traditionally been subjected to the practice of untouchability and other caste-based social, economic, and political discrimination, according to the National Dalit Commission, 2008.

higher pass rates, and lower drop-out and grade repetition rates. It also helped recruit and train more women teachers. A comprehensive program of teacher training The project provided scholarships to 2,500 poor women to enable them to take advantage of training programs for potential teachers. Just over half these women were from the Dalit community. Dalit women are the most disadvantaged group in the country, facing social, economic, educational, and political inequity. A teaching position offers them a source of income and a life of dignity as well as the opportunity to mould young minds for a better future. A total of 15,000 potential teachers received pre-service training under the project. Initially, only a small percentage of the women who received the pre-service training went on to become teachers. After a mid-term review the project expanded the scholarship schemes from 12 to 22 districts to allow better selection of trainees This mid-course correction helped raise the absorption rate of trainees from 12.3% in 2006 to 39% in 2009. Additionally, the project provided in-service training for more than 114,000 existing teachers, including about 34,000 women. This included about 3,500 head teachers. Nearly all primarylevel teachers in Nepals public schools received comprehensive training in improved classroom teaching methodologies in a 10-month program. This program proved so successful that the Government made it mandatory for all primary school teachers to undergo 10 months of in-service training. With 98% of all teachers having received their basic training by the beginning of 2009, a program of regular follow-up training was initiated, to continue after the end of the project thanks to the capacity development component of the project. Long-term gains through capacity development Among the institutions strengthened were the National Centre for Education Development (NCED), the Distance Education Center, and primary teacher training centers (PTTCs) for public schools. These centers, along with some PTTCs for private schools, were linked together to create a network of institutions responsible for training teachers. The project supported the establishment of a training management and coordination committee to formulate and periodically review a teacher training policy. The committee approved the teacher training policy in 2007 and a revised policy in 2011. The project established a new training resource center, complete with training materials, reference books, audiovisual equipment and computer lab. It developed a teacher training curriculum and materials, a guide and a manual for trainers, and materials for the cultural and gender sensitization of teachers and administrators. It provided a new building for the resource centre, refurbished a distance education studio, and renovated NCED and education training center buildings. With the momentum built up by the project, the NCED and PTTCs created 27 new positions for permanent staff to manage the additional training responsibilities. More than 600 officials from the Ministry of Education received management training. Additional short-term training was arranged for more than 200 staff of the NCED and its affiliated agencies.

A holistic approach to education raises standards This project ran concurrently with the Secondary Education Support Project (2002-2008) and Education for All program (20042009), both of which also received ADB support. Together, these initiatives helped the Government of Nepal follow a holistic approach to school education. The percentage of women primary school teachers rose from 22.5% in 2000 to 33.2% in 2009 and is likely to rise further. Through dialogue with the Ministry of Education, the project promoted the recruitment of women and members of disadvantaged groups. The Ministry instructed school management committees to give priority to these groups in recruiting temporary teachers. Then, in 2011, the Ministry adopted a policy reserving 45% of vacant teacher positions for women or members of disadvantaged groups. Project benefits live on The project brought many tangible benefits by improving the quality of classroom teaching, including better gender parity among primary school students, and better learning as evidenced by the higher pass rates and lower grade repetition rates. Less tangibly, but perhaps more importantly, it created a better environment for girls and women from communities that have traditionally faced discrimination. The project helped teachers improve the quality of their work and gave them greater confidence in this work. It transformed the NCED and its affiliated agencies, substantially strengthening their abilities to plan, design, implement, and manage training programs. In so doing, the project laid the foundation for continuing positive changes in primary education. By changing attitudes, building capacity, and strengthening education and training institutions, the Teacher Education Project has impacted the lives of teachers and schoolchildren well beyond its own lifetime. The project provided the stimulus for the Government to revise policies to make primary school teaching more professional, recruit more women teachers, and most important of all counter discrimination against both teachers and students on the basis of gender or community.

The views expressed in this paper are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), or its Board of Governors, or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. The countries listed in this paper do not imply any view on ADB's part as to sovereignty or independent status or necessarily conform to ADB's terminology.