Written by: ECHAV Volunteers 2025 (Group A)
Okhaldhunga municipality is located in the northeast of Nepal and is one of the regions known for its rural lifestyle. As in rural communities, the access to health, food, educational and other needs is more limited than in places like the capital or other regions. The geographical location of this region makes it complicated for everyone to access the different villages, as the roads are narrow and not well constructed. This reality makes the local community isolated and with much fewer opportunities than the rest. Income inequality between the people living here and other developed regions is drastic. The general population living here are either people from poor economic backgrounds or backward social classes who are compelled to live here, and the other section of people are those government employees who got transferred here for employment purposes.
As per the education field, in the 2021 census 73.9% of the Okhaldhunga district population were literate, with a 79.22% male literacy rate and 62.66% female literacy rate. Compared to Kathmandu, this rate is much lower since there the literacy rate is 95.5%, with 94.7% male and 86.12% female rates.
The reality that we observed is much worse than the numbers suggest. In general, the Human Rights Measurement Initiative finds that Nepal is fulfilling only 83.5% of what it should for the right to education based on its level of income 95.4% of what should be possible for primary education and only 71.5% for secondary education. All this data shows us how humanitarian aid is totally needed in the area, both in empowering women and in the educational field. It is not a surprise that some NGOs like VIN are trying to make a difference and give an opportunity to the ones that are left aside by the system.
In the past few weeks, we worked in three of the many schools in the area (292 in total, estimated number): Himalayan Higher Secondary School in Nishanke, Kalika Basic School in Chuhandhchap, and Saptakanya Basic School in Nalshu. A lot of schools are merging because of the decreasing number of students gradually in the rural areas of Nepal, and Okhaldhunga is not far from this reality. In one of the schools, the teachers told us that in past years the number of students used to be around 150, but currently, the number has decreased to merely 50 despite two schools being merged.
The following are some of the issues we faced during our volunteering in these schools:
School
All of the public schools in Nepal offer free meals to children until 5th grade. The education is almost free and the resources like books and notebooks are partially paid for by the government. Knowing this reality, it is understandable that most of the inhabitants have direct access to education. On the other hand, the moment the pupils are at school, they can’t be on the field helping their parents and farming. This creates a bias between how economical it is to bring your kid to school or not. The fact that food is included could make some parents, and students, be motivated to go to school with no other purpose than having a hot meal once per day. Once the students surpass year 5, the reality changes, and we can observe that some families would prefer their kids to be working and earning money for the family instead of “losing” their time in school. This is totally aligned with the percentages that we discussed in the first lines, showing that high school education attendance drops drastically in comparison to previous educational years.
During the project, we visited some canteens in the schools we worked in and saw firsthand the situation of the food in the school. Generally, it was a plate of rice with some potatoes, cereals, or lentils. There was not a proper place to sit or to enjoy their meal; all of them were taking a bowl of food and eating on the way or while playing.
Lack of planning
Another problem we faced is the lack of organization of the schools, and it represents one of the main obstacles to improving the country’s education system. Many institutions, especially in rural areas like the ones we worked in, suffer from ineffective management due to a shortage of resources, insufficient training of administrative staff, and the absence of proper oversight by the relevant authorities. Poor lesson planning, a lack of teaching materials, festivities, and inadequate infrastructure make it difficult to ensure a stable and high-quality learning environment. To this is added the problem of inefficient communication between teachers and families, teachers and pupils, and teachers and NGOs. This damages the efficiency of the lessons, which in many cases are canceled or managed in an unprofessional way, affecting the results and the teaching system itself. Furthermore, the unequal distribution of public funds worsens the gap between urban and rural schools trying (with their own limitations) to fill this gap and, when it’s not possible, send volunteers into the field.
Distance to the school & road conditions
During our placement in the community schools, the students expressed their distress and hardships regarding the commute to their respective schools. As the schools are so far from their houses, they don’t even get to take rest during their way to school. If they decide to rest, it would take much more time. However, while returning back they can rest a bit, but it might get dark before they reach home so either way, the kids are suffering a lot because of the geographical location. The roads become
because most of the students are compelled to stay in their houses. This reality was also a part of our volunteering experience.
Gender issues
Separation of boys and girls, limiting socialization and collaborative learning between the different genders, as well as the expansion of a more open and universal knowledge. Furthermore, the figures cited above regarding the percentage of education received by boys and girls lead us to realize that more men than women have access to and opportunities for training. Therefore, it is still evident that education in the country is more focused and oriented toward male people.
Lack of students
Because of globalization, people moving to urban areas is very common in every corner of the world, and Nepal is no different in that respect. Lack of employment opportunities in the village areas has been one of the major problems there. People go to cities from villages for work, and when the parents move, the children are supposed to go with them. So, the number of children is decreasing every year, especially in the rural hills of Nepal.
The constant decrease in the number of students has created many problems like the merging of schools, and even after the merger, the number keeps decreasing every year. In some schools having fewer than thirty students in total, teachers put two or three grade levels together in the same class. For example: grade one and two students are ten in total, and teachers combine both grades and teach common content. It might be good for the teachers but very ineffective for the students.
These kinds of generalized teaching methods instead of specific ones might hinder the development of children, especially in rural areas of Nepal. NGOs like VIN are allocating volunteers in order to ease the teaching-learning process, but without involvement of the government, it would not be as penetrative and effective.
CONCLUSIONS
At this point, we realize that children and the population in general in the hills still need more resources, access to primary needs, accessibility, and infrastructure for education. All in all, we have experienced many difficulties and harsh realities in the educational field in Okhaldhunga. In the end, we came for a humanitarian aid volunteer experience and we expected to work in a remote area where we would face those difficulties. It’s not all sour and negative, as we also saw some values and attitudes in both students and teachers that we really liked. As most of the schools are small, they create a family-like community among all of them. Both educators and pupils are respected and educated at the same time. There is no such hierarchy or competition between them, and they really try to help each other in whatever way they can as they need each other. They need to share the few resources they have and the ideas that worked with other classes. The relationship between students is also much healthier than in big city schools there is less bullying and more community learning and help from pupil to pupil. Everyone in the schools understands that resources and material things are not needed if there is not a good and complete team. The human resources are much more important than anything else, and if atmosphere you could think of.
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