This blog was written by Baela Jamil, Founding Member and Board Director, PAL Network; CEO, ITA; and Founder of the Pakistan Learning Festival.
The lush green rice and sugarcane fields were a powerful backdrop against the learning walls in the open village courtyard learning camp embraced by the wise grand Banyan tree. They were the organic living props to ‘My Village’ education programme being implemented by Gali Gali in Khoria, a village in the Brahmapuri municipality of district Sarlahi, Nepal. At 4.35pm the entire village was waiting to meet, greet and speak about the programme run by two dedicated female volunteers who commute from the nearby village to make learning happen for 50 multi-age students (5-16 years).
22 partners from Africa and South Asia recently visited Nepal, representing the unique People’s Action for Learning (PAL) network, a purpose-driven platform created in 2015 by committed education activists for evidence-based assessment, leading to powerful learning solutions that could be measured for impact and advocacy. From 26 to 30 October, 2024 Nepal or the ‘roof of the world’ welcomed us to witness facets of ’My Village’ programme in the municipalities of Sarlahi district.
The context and its people matter in defining the challenges of equity and inequality measured by education, wealth and caste. Khoria is inhabited by 100% Dalits or scheduled caste, discriminated by birth within an ancient tight hierarchical varna-avarna ‘impurity-purity’ untouchability scale. The Musahar-dalits of the Terai region in the eastern Gangetic plain across Nepal and India/Bihar geographies have navigated their protection and survival amidst poverty, extreme illiteracy and social and economic distance. Musahars, literally meaning ‘rat eaters’, denotes discrimination as a norm and devoid of social justice.
The Musahars of Khoria have created their own spiritual and social capital over time through multiple gods, giving hope and resilience for their daily existential needs. The god of earth for the ground to stand on; the god of shelter for providing a roof on their heads; the god of water for life; and the god of trees to provide shade and cool breeze as wind catchers against the scorching sun – were all revered for making lives bearable. This organically-created eschatology was powerful to absorb; the ability of humans to turn their absolute deprivation and rejection through pathways of symbolic transformation in this world and beyond.
Four of us from Kenya, Pakistan and Tanzania, visited the ‘learning camp’ in Khoria, inhabited by 120 households of Musahars, deprived, but clearly committed to survival and collaboration with all elements of nature for progress of current and future generations. They were invoking their right for crafting a coherent individual and collective identity, knowing well their fragile prospects. ‘My Village’ programme has galvanised first generation learners of children and adolescents from 5-16 years of age, all at-risk of dropping out from the nearby government school with none or little learning happening year after year – reconfirming that ‘schooling does not mean learning”. The municipality school has two teachers and offers midday meals which are important for this impoverished community. The Learning Camp timings were adjusted from 4-6pm daily following the adapted Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) methodology, measuring each child’s progress dynamically to place her/him at the appropriate level of foundational literacy and numeracy.
The exceptional volunteer teachers were scaffolding children’s learning in groups, constructing words, meanings and numeracy skills. Every wall space including the verandah pillars and half walls near the Banyan tree were full of attractive visuals of letters, words, numbers, fish, children, home, school, fields and more. The colorful ‘Maithili’ genre of folk painting was visible everywhere. In spite of great efforts, decades of neglect had slowed the otherwise fast track progress normally seen when practicing TaRL; but no one is giving up on the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel’s ‘best buy’. Khoira is one of the most challenged of 15 learning camps set up in Sarlahi district; the spirit to overcome constraints was high as we heard from our interactions with the students, chanting, repeating spellings, words, numbers and poems with confidence in the presence of parents and visitors. The community was vocal about the advantages of the learning camp; children look forward to play-based learning routines by dedicated teachers making sense of word-making and counting. However, they were also desperate for toilets as there were none in the entire village, a constant source of loss to their dignity. The teachers echoed how they have become disciplined in managing their basic needs for 5-6 hours until they go home… Is anyone paying heed at the municipality level?
Mercifully, electricity arrived in the village a few weeks ago; many were holding mobiles taking selfies to remember ‘foreign friends’ and a memorable evening. How can the androids be used for active learning: a new word, sentenced and a new daily number problem or even a game? Technology for the marginalised can help leapfrog learning. There were other visible and welcome elements of ‘My Village’, including a portable library of 43 books for children and youth of the village with a range of titles to read and learn about stories for fun, citizenship, peace, democracy, etc. Older siblings and young mothers were being imparted five life skills, including making reusable sanitary pads to teach the community how to ‘fish for a lifetime, rather than give them fish and feed for a day’. Clearly this was empowering young girls and women with grounded skills for menstrual hygiene management.
There were urgent needs for the programme sustainability, including the functionality of the government school to perform better with teacher adequacy, presence and quality, so that students from ‘My Village’ may learn and persist in the school. There is an urgency for the local government to give attention to marginalised children and act with responsibility to address major challenges of system accountability, ensuring children are enrolled, persist and learn to overcome centuries of discrimination through education as social justice.
The learning camp in Khoria is a collective affair, open for all to witness and support, reinforcing the dictum that ‘it takes a village to educate a child’. We were there to see it in action, the power of the ‘learning teams’ approach, boldly defying oppressive hierarchies of exclusion and building foundations for lifelong learning in Nepal.
