-Birgitte Lind Petersen

“If only we get education, our lives would be better,” an ex-kamaiya from Bardiya district stated three years ago when preparatory research was done by Backward Society Education (BASE) for the Operation a Day’s Work (OD) project. It was the main argument used when BASE was founded to work for the uplift of Tharus; education clearly seems to be the pivot of life changes for many people.

In latter years, education has gotten a focal position in development programmes all over the world. However, supporting education as a development effort is not as a task straightforward as it may seem. There are numerous dilemmas to consider, as BASE Bardiya has experienced during the past year’s preparation and initiation of the Education for Freedom project.

Education for all or for some?

In Nepal, as in many other countries, education has been designed according to norms and values of the elites. In a Hindu Kingdom like Nepal, where high caste Hindus control most of the state apparatus, the code of conduct in the schools as well as the content of learning are biased accordingly. Lower castes and rural areas are underdeveloped per se as opposed to the high castes and developed urban areas. Such dichotomies are not alluring for children brought up on the values of earning a living by working the land.

Whose knowledge counts? Robert Chambers asked rhetorically in his famous book that criticises the ‘development doers’ for imposing their own ideals and ignoring local knowledge. BASE also asked this question when initiating the Education for Freedom project. The school system in Nepal has neglected the great diversity of ethnic groups, languages and religions in its teaching. A main focus of the Education for Freedom project is therefore to reverse and equalise the huge discrepancies currently existing – to let teaching reflect the area and background of the students, make it enhance their tolerance and understanding of the many differences in their country and ensure that hitherto excluded and marginalized communities like ex-kamaiyas, landless and Dalits have equal access to education.

The Education for Freedom project

The idea and motivation for the Education for Freedom project emanated from a campaign in 2000 leading to the abolition of the kamaiya system. During this campaign, it became clear that the children of the former bonded labourers needed an alternative in order to break with their inherited exploited status. After an intensive period of discussion, MS and BASE made a proposal to the Danish Youth Association to get support for an education project. The aim was to support access to and securing of free, relevant and good quality education for ex-kamaiya and other marginalized children. Out of three project proposals, the one submitted by BASE and MS was selected for receiving the money collected during a one day’s work campaign by Danish high-school students in November 2002. The project officially started in 2003 and is currently being implemented in 33 government schools in six Village development committees (VDCs) and one municipality in Bardiya district. All selected areas have a high proportion of ex-kamaiyas, Dalits and landless people. Out of the 33 schools, only 16 get specific formal and non-formal education support. The rest will benefit from general support to primary schools such as trainings, exposures, sharing of experience from model education centres, etc.1

Education for Freedom has been granted a large donation of almost 70 million rupees. However, the project is more than anything else a capacity building project. The vast majority of activities aim at strengthening and bringing awareness to the communities and all the different actors influencing children’s education, including children themselves, teachers, School Management Committees (SMCs), parents, ex-kamaiya communities, employers and parents of child labourers. Indirectly this also implies supporting the ex-kamaiyas in their on-going struggle for identity cards and land. The outcome of project expenditure cannot always be seen immediately or very concretely. The aim is to plant the seed for attitudinal and fundamental changes in each individual, which will benefit society on a much larger scale.

Main components of the project

The Education for Freedom project consists of three major components. One is model education that entails an overall vision and ideals of free and good quality education as well as pilot-like manifestations of these ideals in model education centres. The vision and ideals aim at ensuring child-centred and pedagogically sound education where local knowledge, local influence and different languages are integrated into the teaching to make it more relevant. Furthermore, the integration of principles of pluralism aims at ensuring that all children – regardless of caste, ethnicity, gender, disability or the like – are getting equal, fair and good treatment and teaching in schools. Teaching should be free, contextual and compulsory as the government promises, and teachers as well as parents should be made mutually responsible through enhanced dialogue and knowledge about roles and responsibilities. Besides putting due emphasis on qualitative aspects and especially on the content of the teaching as well as the materials and methods used, BASE will also support some physical improvements. Budget is thus allocated for building additional as well as improving existing classrooms, toilets, furniture or other physical necessities.

Another component imperative to the project is community empowerment. This implies supporting and strengthening local people, especially ex-kamaiyas and other marginalized, for the sake of securing quality education for them and their children. Awareness raising on rights based educational and child-related issues as well as mobilisation for campaigns claiming rights to education and active involvement in School Management Committees (SMCs) and Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA) are some of the tools BASE plans to use. Furthermore, this project component aims at building the capacity of communities as well as their representative bodies through constantly updating and informing them on current official policies and practices and their respective rights.

The third component, cooperation/coordination, networking and alliance building, is supportive of the other two. This component indicates the fundamental importance of integrating the project with the government system and multiple other actors. This project component at integrating the project into the existing government structures at all levels, from school/SMC/PTA through VDC and District Education Office (DEO) to national level. BASE seeks close cooperation with the authorities in order to create a joint understanding and shared responsibility for successes as well as failures. Networking and alliance building with likeminded organisations will be part of awareness raising of the general public and overall lobby/advocacy for improved education in Nepal and for focusing on issues of child labour and the like. By cooperating with government and at the same time pressuring government in cooperation with other qualified organisations, BASE and MS hope to ensure that the impact of the project broadens beyond the limited population and area targeted. This third component, and in particular the close cooperation and coordination with government institutions, is unique to the project.

Activities of initiation

During the past year, BASE has focussed on making a baseline study in order to identify the main problems and to get an overall picture of the situation of ex-kamaiyas and schools in Bardiya. Based on this information, BASE’s committees selected the working area – six VDCs with highest ex-kamaiya population and the municipality with a high number of child labourers. Next step was to make detailed surveys of schools in the project area and select those (16) that would benefit directly from the project, i.e. schools located close to camps of ex-kamaiyas and landless people. As the project involves many stakeholders, BASE has put a lot of effort into establishing working relations with all the different levels within government, within BASE and within the communities. Although time consuming, it is absolutely vital for the success of the project that everyone understands the main content of the project.

Currently, BASE has started the implementation of initial activities such as informing SMCs and PTAs about government education policies, developing home link diaries for pilot testing, mobilising ex-kamaiyas and BASE committee members to participate and to be responsible for specific parts of the project through thematic working groups, informing and awareness raising, through public media and meetings and, not least, by preparing involvement of teachers and communities for developing contextual and locally relevant materials in Tharu language spoken by most ex-kamaiyas for the smallest classes in the coming year. Much is to be carried out jointly with the education authorities of the district.

Cooperating with the government

There is a sound philosophy underpinning the decision to support the government school system. Obviously it would be a lot easier to build our own model school following the liberal ideals and child-centred philosophy of our project, open it to children of former kamaiyas and make sure that it functions as a prime example. This, however, would most likely be yet another glorious island in an ocean of failed education. Too many NGO projects have made outstanding model schools with no connections to the overall system of education. When donor support ended, so did the school. However, making an education project that is based on existing public schools poses a huge challenge as it entails a need to coordinate closely and cooperate with the state authorities, who may not be prepared to alter existing practices.

In BASE Bardiya, it has been a challenging task to ensure linkages with the government, as there was nowhere to turn to for help or advise on how to handle such cooperation. From the very beginning of the project, while designing it and formulating the project document, the DEO, District Development Office (DDC) and the District Administration Office have been kept informed and the DEO consulted for various purposes.

Among the initiatives for cooperation, we have established a Bardiya Education Advisory Board (BEAB) with representation from BASE Bardiya, MS-Nepal and the DEO. The purpose of the Board is to advise and monitor the project. It is a way to ensure joint influence, joint responsibility and trust between the stakeholders. Outside BEAB, but of importance to the local support and ownership of the project, are the VDCs. BASE called all six project VDC representatives for an information and sharing meeting about the project in their areas with the aim to involve them and to respect their rightful role in the project, for example as local resource mobilisers. For sustainability, we have to work with the existing structures and seek to influence them positively.

Symbolically of considerable importance, the DEO took part in the ceremony when country director of MS-Nepal, Nina Ellinger, and president of BASE Bardiya, Bishnu Tharu, signed the official project agreement. During the planning of the project activities, BASE also invited DEO representatives for consultancy and to ensure timely coordination.

The DEO is planning a five-year District Education Plan (DEP) in cooperation with several NGOs, among them BASE. The Ministry of Education (MOE) has selected Bardiya as one of five districts for training and for bottom-up planning in education. The Education for Freedom project will be integrated into these new developments. A main task identified by the DEO is the problem of not-going, as well as under- and over-aged school children.
Besides cooperative planning and meetings, a first concrete task of cooperation and synergetic use of resources between BASE and the government was developing school profiles: a systematic collection of quantitative and qualitative data about each school, the area in which it is located, its students, parents, teachers, etc. BASE was to use these profiles for selection of schools to benefit from the project and potentially to develop into model education centres. Some schools have already been supported by the DEO in collecting information and in formulating visions and goals for the coming five years.

The art of compromising

Although cooperating with government is inevitable for improving the education system, it is not easy. After one District Education Officer acquires in-depth knowledge of the project, he gets transferred and we start all over again. Furthermore, BASE faces a lot of delay when working with the government education system. The DEO in Bardiya can hardly make any decision without consulting first the regional office in Surkhet and thereafter the Department of Education (DOE)/Ministry of Education (MOE). It is at times very frustrating when our education project has planning and deadlines to follow. BASE has to compromise sometimes. Cooperation entails listening to and incorporating the ideas and views of the authorities.

We are dissatisfied with the current system, we want to change it, but we also want the government to take part in and be responsible for the changes. It is therefore of utmost importance to be able to compromise or even let go of some aspects of the project that we deem really important.

Besides cooperating and coordinating, BASE has to advocate for changes in government rules and practices. It was quite shocking to realise that in all the schools where BASE field-staff went to find out about fulfilment of and adherence to the government plan of ‘Education for All’, the teachers had not heard of it. Hence, advocacy is continuously needed. Although we cooperate, it does not imply that we should be afraid of criticising weak points and flawed practices.

Another point of controversy is support of the ex-kamaiyas whom the government still has not approved as such. BASE advocates distributing land and identity cards to all former kamaiyas, since all those who are still not approved live highly insecure lives. For the children, this means they cannot have any schooling unless their camp is near a village with a school. BASE urges the DEO to provide education for all these children as soon as possible, but as long as the camps are illegal, this is not possible under government rules. Hence, BASE advocates a compromise where we contribute some temporary structures (for example tents) and the DEO allocates resources for a three-year flexible schooling programme after which the children can be enrolled in a general primary school. Hopefully, by that time, the ex-kamaiyas will have been granted land and a permanent school can be opened.

The struggles are worth it

Some of the most important lessons learned at BASE Bardiya relate to our own capacities. Initially, we were not sufficiently equipped with knowledge and suitable capacities to actually handle such a large, diverse task. This has served to delay the implementation because actual understanding of the project was not broadly shared within the organisation. Much time has been spent on sharing, informing and discussing. Everyone gets really frustrated once in a while when coordination or communication fails and we feel we spend all our time working on specificities that seem far away from the schooling of children. However, the thrill and fun of working when it succeeds makes it worth it.

There is risk of failure, but we are ready to face the challenge – after all, the most important thing is that all children born of ex-kamaiyas and other marginalized people should have education and the possibilities to make choices in their lives.

Birgitte Lind Petersen is information and documentation advisor for BASE Bardiya

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