Introduction

GAN’s work takes places primarily in the school. This is because we have a strong belief that the way in which to bring about real change is through children – this is especially true in Nepal where 43% of the country are less than 15 years old. Working through the school, one of the central points of the Nepali village, is also an effective way of reaching the majority of those within the community. GAN’s projects are articulated in a number of different was, but the overall objectives of our work can be classified as follows:

Children should…

• Be given the opportunity to develop skills both within and outside the classroom
• Have an understanding of their rights and responsibilities
• Be supported by whatever means possible to be given the opportunity to be able to concentrate on their personal development without let or hinder
• Only have to leave school before the age of 18 if they wish to

Teachers should…

• Be academically sound and qualified
• Be committed to the profession
• Be devoted to creating a stimulating and challenging environment for children’s learning
• Be willing and able to facilitate and encourage children to develop critical thinking
• Be capable of organising and managing classrooms for both single-grade and multi-grade settings
• Be able to receive adequate professional support internally from peers and senior teachers

The school should…

• Provide a conducive and challenging environment for child learning and development
• Promote an atmosphere of equality and equity for all the children in its catchment area
• Have a spacious playground and availability of sufficient play materials;
• Be centres for cross-cultural integration
• Regularly organise interaction programmes with parents and other community stakeholders

The classroom should…

• Be a stimulating learning environment designed to meet the learning needs of all its students
• Be a caring environment where there is mutual respect between teacher and student
• Be spacious, clean, bright, well ventilated and adequately furnished
• Have a wide range of teaching aids should be on display, and should be used by both teacher and students as a regular part of the teaching-leaning process

The Local Community should…

• Desire and be able to involve themselves in the affairs of the local school. Where this is not evident, they should be mobilised and/or provided with necessary training
• Become accountable to the educational stakeholders within their community, and a mutual plan of action should be drawn up, monitored and evaluated

Training, hardware development, youth development, community mobilisation and child empowerment are some of the ways by which we try and achieve these goals.

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