Resham Khullal, a child miner, is enrolled in Grade 4 of Dhading District’s Handikhola Primary School. Before he became a regular in a coaching class – an educational intervention of Prayas Nepal, an implementing partner of World Education – his teacher noted that his performance in math was quite low compared to his peers. Resham’s disinterest was reflected in his handwriting (small, unclear scribbles) and poor marks in his test scores (2 out of 10). His work as a child miner was one reason why he didn’t attend school regularly. Managing a large class, his teacher was unable to provide him with enough personalized attention or extra tutoring to help him keep up with his studies, and his exam scores suffered as a result.
In 2010, coaching classes began as part of Naya Bato Naya Paila Project’s educational services. Resham got the opportunity to participate for a few hours after each school day. He was initially shy and hesitant to voice his questions even when he had not understood a particular lesson in math.
Initially shy and hesitant to voice questions, Resham’s interest in math and his ability to write words and numbers improved with one-on-one mentoring with the class facilitator and access to the tutoring facilities that the coaching class providedThe small successes he was achieving in coaching classes – accurately answering math questions – was helping him improve his performance in his regular class. Resham says, “I now enjoy doing my math homework”.
The school principal, Devi Prasad Malla, is proud of Resham, who is now considered a “high potential” student. Recently, Mr. Malla shared the results of the last coaching class test and Resham’s overall class accomplishments with Prayas Nepal and World Education staff. He said, “Along with an improvement in his handwriting, Resham has started demonstrating a consistent improvement in math, scoring 57 marks out of a total of 60 in the last test. This puts him among the top. It is truly amazing!”