Quick Facts from UNICEF on Nepal:
The Nepalese Education System
While the country's educational system has made a great deal of progress in a very short time, there is still much to be done.
Many government schools are in bad physical shape while those that exist are extremely underfunded, especially in the countryside. In these remote areas the schools are very basic and even sometimes unsafe. Often these schools have no blackboard and very little furniture. Even supplementary materials like libraries, children's books, and computer labs are rare. As a result, most schools do not have a library nor do they provide books other than textbooks.
On occasians Travellers also do donate books that are written in English or other foreign languages rather than in Nepali. In many cases, these few books that schools have are so valuable that teachers lock them up, unavailable to curious children. I’ve seen this first hand when I went there. I had bought a whole bag of books for the children at the orphanage and they went straight into a locked cupboard filled with all their orphanages important things.
Books are very much a treasured resource and rare commodity in these village area schools.
- Total adult literacy rate (%), 2000–2007 - 57
- Life expectancy at birth (years), 2007 - 64
- Neonatal mortality rate, 2004 - 32 (Australia's rate by comparison 3)
- Number per 100 population, 2006, phones - 4
- Number per 100 population, 2006, Internet users -1
- % of population below international poverty line of US$1.25 per day, 2005 - 55%
The Nepalese Education System
While the country's educational system has made a great deal of progress in a very short time, there is still much to be done.
Many government schools are in bad physical shape while those that exist are extremely underfunded, especially in the countryside. In these remote areas the schools are very basic and even sometimes unsafe. Often these schools have no blackboard and very little furniture. Even supplementary materials like libraries, children's books, and computer labs are rare. As a result, most schools do not have a library nor do they provide books other than textbooks.
On occasians Travellers also do donate books that are written in English or other foreign languages rather than in Nepali. In many cases, these few books that schools have are so valuable that teachers lock them up, unavailable to curious children. I’ve seen this first hand when I went there. I had bought a whole bag of books for the children at the orphanage and they went straight into a locked cupboard filled with all their orphanages important things.
Books are very much a treasured resource and rare commodity in these village area schools.