Collaborative Schools Network

Durbar High School is the oldest public (government-funded) school in Nepal. It was the most prestigious school in the country; built to educate the nation’s elite. If you visit Durbar High School (the white building in the background) any morning of the week, you will see a long line of buses waiting outside its gates. But they are … Continue reading What a line of buses tells you about the state of public education

Two of our students, a brother and sister, have not been to school for a week. The phone number we have for their mother doesn’t work and no one knows their address. So this afternoon, with photos of the students in hand, and a rough idea where they live, myself and four other teachers set … Continue reading Missing students… found!

Exams started today. And that means our students have to pay exam fees. And that means there is plenty of cash at school. And that appears to be why in the past, our teachers (and teachers in many other government schools) enjoyed ‘royal’ lunches during the exam time; meat, momos and more. So what do you … Continue reading The ‘royal’ lunch

Walk into any government school, and you’ll often hear some sort of chanting coming from the classrooms. It’s tempting to think it’s the sound of learning, but in most cases, it’s not. It’s actually the sound of (some) students blurting out answers to teachers’ questions, while other students mumble along to cover for their lack … Continue reading One-by-one or all-at-once?

When we did an audit of Jana Uddhar school in February 2015, we found the the average student attendance was 88.4%. (This figure did not include attendance of students in Class 1, which typically has the worst attendance, so the whole school figure was probably significantly lower.) 88.4% attendance sounds quite good. It’s not. It … Continue reading How to improve student attendance