2017 Annual Report
World Education is pleased to share our annual report detailing our 2017 activities and impact. In 2017 alone, we expanded our programs to reach more people from Nepal’s least advantaged communities. We supported children with functional limitations, adults and children vulnerable to exploitation, migrant laborers, and flood affected communities, to name a few.
For more on our accomplishments over the last year, check out the full report: 2017 Annual Report
Project Update: Equity in Education in Disadvantaged Districts Year 1 EGRA Results (April 2018)
World Education is committed to improving the quality of early grade education in districts with poor educational outcomes. Under the Equity in Education in Disadvantaged Districts project funded by UNICEF, World Education implements programming to improve early grade reading and math achievement in four disadvantaged districts in Mid- and Far-Western Nepal: Achham, Bajura, Kalikot, and Mugu.
At the end of 2017, after only one year of programming, the project is showing impressive results, with students in intervention schools demonstrating greater learning gains than those in control schools. For more on the progress we’ve seen in Year 1, read our full summary brief:
UNICEF Early Grade Learning Year 1 Results Brief – April 2018
Summary Brief: Our Approach to Mitigating Exploitation in Brick Factories (April 2018)
Through a decade of sustained engagement with brick factory laborers, World Education has emerged as a leader in Nepal in combating exploitation in brick factories and has developed a proven, holistic model for expanding economic opportunity for financially insecure communities. The Building Better Futures initiative’s first and second phases built on past interventions that demonstrated substantial impact in reducing vulnerability to exploitative labor. World Education’s multidimensional strategy focused on imparting education, diversifying livelihoods and building the capacities of communities to be resilient in the face of financial shocks and natural disasters.
This publication presents the challenges created by exploitative labor practices in Nepal’s brick factories and World Education’s efforts to develop a successful model for mitigating the adverse impacts through the Building Better Futures initiative under the Naya Bato Naya Paila project. For a description of our approach as well as the outcomes from the first and second phases of the Building Better Futures initiative, read our brief:
Summary Brief: Pilot for the Early Detection of Functional Impairments (September 2017)
In November 2016, Handicap International and Resource Center for Rehabilitation and Development, with support from World Education Nepal and UNICEF, initiated a pilot screening program to support and inform the Government of Nepal’s efforts to identify, diagnose and treat functional impairments among children early in their development. Through the pilot, World Education seeks to expand efforts to support children with functional limitations or disabilities in meeting Early Grade Learning outcomes and to improve learning outcomes for children with functional limitations by promoting responsive instructional strategies.
The pilot screening surveyed a sample of 2,804 children enrolled in ECD-Grade 3 classes in 40 public schools across Achham, Bajura, Kalikot, and Mugu. Initial findings indicate that 26% of screened children are at risk of limited participation in society because of one or more functional limitations and that 9.4% of screened children have a 99-100% chance of being formally diagnosed with a disability. These results suggest that disability prevalence in Nepal may be higher than suggested by the Government of Nepal’s 2011 Census, which indicated that 1.94% of Nepalis have some form of disability, a statistic that falls below World Health Organization-reported international averages. The overview, linked below, shares strategies, results and recommendations from the pilot, which is one component of a broader Equity in Education program supported by UNICEF.
Report: 2015-2017 Results from School Meals Programme Early Grade Reading Assessment
Since 2015, World Education Nepal has partnered with the World Food Programme to improve learning outcomes among Grade 1-Grade 3 students in 1,040 schools in six Far-Western and Mid-Western food insecure districts where the World Food Programme distributes student meals. In early November 2017, World Education Nepal published a final report detailing results from 2017 Early Grade Reading Assessments in Baitadi, Bajhang, Dadeldhura, Dailekh, Darchula and Jajarkot, which generally have poor educational outcomes.
Results from the 2017 Early Grade Reading Assessment indicate that World Education and the World Food Programme’s collaborative effort to improve students’ ability to learn by addressing nutrition while simultaneously improving the quality of instruction has led to impressive results, with a high return on investment: At baseline, only 1% of Grade 3 students could read at grade level; after two years, a majority of students can. For complete results, please access the full 2017 report:
Summary Briefs: Results from Phase 1 of Sangai Sikaun, Sangai Badhaun: A Model for the Marginalized
World Education Nepal produced a series of technical briefs to share key strategies, results and lessons learned from various aspects of the Sangai Sikaun, Sangai Badhaun (Learning & Growing Together) project. The first phase of Sangai Sikaun, Sangai Badhaun worked in severely disadvantaged communities with poor educational outcomes from 2012 t0 2016 and aimed to build a holistic education model in Nepal that enables marginalized children to complete a quality education up to Grade 8. In pursuit of this, the project focused on increasing access to and participation in quality Early Childhood Development classes; improving early grade reading and numeracy skills; improving subject teaching and student persistence in Grades 4-8; and, improving parents’ abilities to support their children’s learning.
At project conclusion, activities had improved learning outcomes for 13,000 students enrolled in Early Child Development to Grade 10 classes in 27 community schools, across three Village Development Committees in Banke and Dang districts. Dropout rates fell dramatically and attendance increased. Each technical brief in this series highlights strategies, results and lessons learned from a different area of the Sangai Sikaun, Sangai Badhaun project’s first phase. Collectively, these contributions add to a growing evidence of approaches that should shape policies that will change outcomes for Nepal’s least advantaged children. We look forward to expanding upon the learnings reported on our technical brief series in phase two of the Sangai Sikaun, Sangai Badhaun project.
Sangai Sikaun, Sangai Badhaun (Phase One) Technical Brief Series:
Photostory: Breaking the cycle of exploitation in Nepal’s brick factories
World Education helped Sharadha transition back to school from her job in a brick factory. Now she is in grade seven, and hopes to become a nurse.
Each year, Nepal’s brick factories produce more than 5 million bricks – a number that has ballooned to enable reconstruction projects following the April 2015 earthquake. Increasing numbers of men, women and children find themselves in inescapable indebtedness, borrowing money to make ends meet in the immediate term in exchange for future work.
World Education Nepal’s Building Better Futures Initiative supports brick factory workers to break cycles of exploitative labor and overcome the oppressive conditions of intense manual labor and mistreatment they often experience. Using a holistic approach, World Education Nepal educates brick workers’ children, expands livelihood options and provides financial services to empower families to pursue new options for income generation. The Building Better Futures Initiative holds livelihood trainings and school enrollment so that hundreds of people like Shanti and Sharadha, whose stories you can read in this World Education photo story, are not resigned to a fate of dangerous labor in the brick factories. Join us in celebrating their achievements.
Photostory: Strengthening Literacy in West Nepal
Since its start in 1976, World Education Nepal has been a leader in improving basic literacy for poor and marginalized groups in Nepal. Using a holistic approach, World Education Nepal has provided thousands of women and marginalized groups the foundation to build their own livelihoods through economic and literacy classes. This photo documentary shows some of the women and communities we have worked with in the Gulmi and Arghakhanchi districts. Literacy and economic classes make a difference for many Nepalis across the country, and this photostory is a testimony to this fact.
Resunga Mahila Karyakram_Nepal
Success Story: Dikchhaya’s Dream
When Dikchhaya was a girl, she was forced to drop out of school because her parents could not afford her school fees. She entered a life of bonded labor, and then fought as a soldier during the armed conflict in Nepal. After the war, she struggled to earn enough money to feed her family and could not pay for her daughter to go to school.
Dikchhaya wants her daughter Liza to have a better life than she did.
World Education is working in Dikchhaya’s community to improve the overall quality of education, involve mothers in their children’s learning, and help mothers start small businesses to support their families. Dikchhaya joined a World Education mother’s group where she learned basic education and entrepreneurship skills. She took out a loan through the program to open her own small shop, selling snacks and supplies near a school, and pays Liza’s school fees with the income.
Now that Dikchhaya can afford to send Liza to school regularly, Liza’s grades are improving and she is learning to read. World Education also works with teachers, school management, and local governments to improve the quality of education for Liza and other students in Nepal. Liza and Dikchhaya are just two of the more than 120,000 Nepalese children and adults who benefited directly from World Education’s comprehensive learning programs in 2016.
