Community schools do better as teachers enroll their kids there

Teachers at community schools across the country generally send their children to private schools for better education. 

This in itself speaks of volume regarding the mentality of the teachers, and the quality of education they provide. 

To overcome this challenge, the management committees of some community schools in Rupandehi district launched a campaign three years ago making it mandatory for the teachers to enroll their children to the school they taught at.

The idea was to improve the quality of education - for who does not want to give the best education to their offspring? 

Eventually these community schools at Manigram have come up with much better results, especially in the recent School Leaving Certificate (SLC) exams.

As a part of the campaign, teachers of Shanti Namuna Higher Secondary School at Manigram were compelled to compulsorily enroll their children in the school. 

After Kul Prasad Lamichhane, assistant principal of the community school, got his daughter Prakriti, who was a ninth grader at a nearby private school, enrolled to his school in the first year of the campaign, some other teachers were obliged to follow the suit. 

As the campaign entered second year, the teaching-learning activities improved, and the remaining teachers also enrolled their children to the school, Lamichhane recalled. 
He said, “It is unethical for the teachers of community schools to send their children to private schools.”

“Responsibility and accountability of those teachers after enrolling their children to their schools have naturally increased and this has resulted in better performance,” Lamichhane added. 

The community schools have posted better SLC results over the last three years following the campaign. The number of the first division and distinction holders has been increasing every year. 

In the first year of the campaign, 63 percent out of those appeared in the SLC exams had passed, and the figure climbed to 73 percent in the second year, and to 78 percent by the third year. 

Earlier, the percentage of SLC results hovered around 30 to 40 in the school. 

Shanti Namuna School, which now runs classes ranging from nursery to tenth grade through English as a medium of instruction, is dubbed as a ´model school´ of the district.
 
“Owing to better academic results, guardians now trust us when it comes to quality education. This campaign has become a grand success,” vice-principal Lamichhane adds proudly. 

Kalika Higher Secondary School of Butwal, which obtained 86 percent results in this year´s SLC exams, has also performed better after the teachers started to enroll their children to the school they taught at. 

Similar is the story of Navin Audhyogik Kadar Bahadur Rita Higher Secondary School of Butwal. “We are now facing the pressure of guardians to get their children enrolled to our school,” says Prem Acharya, the principal.