Report on the Splendid Valley School

Palubari

Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

(Report by Nigel Wilson who visited the School on Thursday 17^th November 2005)

The School is situated at Palubari, a few kilometres to the east of Sankhu, in the Kathmandu Valley.  Access, by vehicle, is via Sankhu and, walking (about 40 minutes) from the main road between Bhaktapur and Nagarkot.    At present, the school is a single building of three storeys, with classrooms on the ground and first floors.

The head – teacher (and school founder) is Mr Basudev Kafle who is responsible for 10 staff and some 165 pupils aged from 4 to 13, divided into 8 classes.  Approximately 20 pupils come from Nagarkot, the rest come from the surrounding valley.   At the moment, children have to go the school in Sankhu at the age of 14 to complete their School leaving Certificate at 16.  A plot of land has been purchased near to the school to provide extra class rooms to take pupils up to the age of 16 and an area for play / sports.      

The school day commences at 9am and finishes at 4pm and consists of 7 lessons each of 45 minutes. There is a one hour break for lunch and two shorter breaks in the morning and afternoon.  Each lesson is conducted in English. Only one lesson per day is in Nepali.  The curriculum is divided into:-

English Literature and Grammar (2 lessons per day)

Mathematics

Nepali

Science

Geography

Social Studies

Moral Education

General Knowledge

PE

The school’s policies are:-

! :  Ethos   -- to enable the pupils in a friendly atmosphere;

2: Staff    -- expected to follow the above

3:  Pupils -- they pick up this ethos quickly, gaining respect for the teachers.

Staff does not have specialist subjects, although each teaches their class maths and English. For most lessons, teachers move from one class to another.  Pupils move only on occasions, and that is to an outside area, adjacent to the school, for PE Games and sports are very limited at present.

Teaching methods are formal and but the style is limited by the lack of good up-to-date resources. However the standards achieved appear to be satisfactory and both staff and pupils work hard as there is a good rapport between them.

There is a School Management Committee of 7, which includes the head teacher, 2 parents and an Education Officer from the Nepali Government Education Office.  At the moment there is no Parent / Teacher Association, but meetings with parents are called when necessary.      The Head Teacher has a Five Year Plan which is to increase the size of the school, both in terms of building and pupils, also to use part of the land for sports.    The overall comment is that it is a good school, but is in need of good resources to allow a more pupil – centred approach

The trustees of Friends of Splendid Valley School wish to convey their thanks to Nigel Wilson for taking the time to visit Splendid Valley School on his visit to Nepal in November 2005 together with this report.   Nigel who lives in Yorkshire is a retired school teacher with 14 years of experience in charity work / education in Nepal and neighbouring countries.