Where did it start?

Community is our larger home. It gives us a sense of belongingness. Our community can mean a physical thing we can touch as a temple, monastery and community building or non-physical things, such as our culture, religion, traditions, history, heritage and belief system. With good education generally centralized in urban areas or a lack of good education in rural villages, there is a growing tendency that the sense of community is being lost in the pursuit of education as the young generation drifts away from their home in their early years. It not only means a poorer foundation of education for children in the rural community but also weakens their ties with their community, which can become a source of unhappiness in the long run. To retain their connection with their community and give the children the best of both worlds, the need is ever greater to enhance the quality of education at the basic levels. 

Background

Saathi Teachers Programme is a project under Helambu Education and Livelihood Partnership (HELP) programme. We organise paired teaching placements for qualified and passionate young people to teach at basic level schools (grade 1-5) struggling with a shortage of teachers in rural communities through the programme. This programme started from the fundamental belief that there is a rampant learning crisis at the community public schools, mainly in rural areas. To change it, there must be a concentrated and coordinated effort to alter how education is delivered at the foundation level to ensure the availability of quality teachers, a positive environment and adequate resources. The ‘Saathi Teacher programme believes teachers should be friends with their pupils to create an effective learning environment. Saathi teachers work closely with the local school management committee and the local teachers, an instrumental combination of forces to transform the classrooms. A Saathi teacher is a passionate teacher committed to improving students' mathematical and literacy skills and focusing on developing 21st-century skills in the primary classroom in a child-friendly way. 

 HELP has piloted this programme in five schools with 10 Saathi's between 2019-21 at Panchpokhari RM.  The programme shows strong results concerning the retention and achievement of children in the pilot schools (despite the Covid lockdown).  In the year 2021, we have expanded it to Melamchi Municipality with 9 Saathi. For the third cohort, we received over 500 applications to be Saathi teachers and selected 15 highly qualified candidates placed in 5 schools in partnership with Tripurasundari Rural Municipality of Sindhupalchowk. We support high-needs schools with Saathi teachers and help set up Early Childhood Development (ECD) classrooms in each of them. It will create a positive environment for the learning of the students and also helps increase the attendance ratio in the classroom.

The purpose of the Saathi Teacher Programme

The Saathi Teachers Programme aims to improve education in Basic Schools by developing schools. In accordance with this programme, 5 basic schools in chosen local governments are assigned 2/2 Saathi Teachers for a period of, on average, 2 years. Depending on the school's needs, they will serve as subject teachers for classes 1 through 5 in Math and English.
Through extracurricular activities, the arts, and culture, Saathi teachers will aid in the development of the 4Cs (creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration) of the twenty-first century. To manage this program and assist the overall growth of the school and the students, HELP collaborates with the relevant local government and the schools.