The Student Experience of Teach for Nepal (TFN) Fellows’ Classrooms

Nepal’s public education system is in a dire situation: only 60% of the students who enrol in grade 1 make it to grade 10. Of those who make it to grade 10, over 50% of the students fail their 10th grade national level examination (School Leaving Certificate or SLC). In 2015, for example, 67% or around 339,000 students from the public school system failed their SLC examination. These 339,000 students never made it to college because they failed to pass through the so called “iron gate”. In contrast, around 89% of the students from private school system passed their SLC in 2015. The graph below illustrates that private schools have continued to outperform public schools in SLC. This is very distressing considering that only relatively rich urban families can afford private education.

School education in Nepal is also plagued by gender and caste disparities. The literacy rate for female is 57.4% which is about 18% less than the male literacy rate. Studies have found that female students also dropout at a faster rate than male students. The average performance of females in SLC has also been historically lower than that of boys. In 2015, while 40% of male students from public schools passed SLC, same was true for only 28% of female students. Similarly, caste-wise statistics doesn’t look any better. At 33%, the literacy rate among Dalit students is half the national average. Dalit dropout rate is higher than other castes; and very few percentages of Dalit pass the SLC compared to other castes.

In order to address the widespread disparity in Nepal’s education system, Teach for Nepal set out on a journey with a belief that strong teachers and their leadership can transform the lives of Nepali children. Launched in 2012, Teach for Nepal, a non-profit similar to Teach for America, grants two-year teaching Fellowships to outstanding university graduates who are committed to ending educational inequity in Nepal. Over the last three years, TFN has recruited and placed 150 Fellows in 36 high-need public schools in rural areas of Sindhupalchowk, Lalitpur and Dhanusa district. These young leaders were selected based on their academic achievement and leadership potentials along with their ability to work and excel in challenging situations.

TFN’s hope is that the Fellows would create a classroom where all of their students can thrive and make significant academic achievement as well as develop skills to continue on a trajectory of success. While external factors such as family, community, management of schools, and national policies have an impact on learning outcomes of students, TFN believes that proactive teachers and leaders can still produce results.

Ultimately, TFN’s vision is that all children, without being constrained by their social, cultural and economic circumstances, will receive an excellent education that will allow them real opportunities to determine their own future.

A strong focus of this study was to elicit feedback on the impact of the Fellowship program through a perspective of the most important stakeholders – the students. In particular, the study hoped to answer three key questions.

1. What does the classroom experience look like? Is this experience impacted by the socio-economic status (caste, gender, family income, family education) of the students? Or have the TFN Fellows been able to address the differences, and create an enriching experience for all students?
2. How strong is the correlation between the positive classroom experience and academic achievement?
3. How have the students’ aspirations and dreams for future changed since TFN Fellows entered their classrooms?