Family Literacy Classes Empower Women and Children In Nepal
©UNESCO Nepal
Goma Devi Raut is a single young mother living with a physical disability, making it difficult for her to walk and care for her daughter. However, she says she has high hopes of improving her situation by furthering her education.
Goma was born in Diktel in Khotang district, a remote village in the eastern part of Nepal, where she was ostracised by her community and family. In search of a better life, she left the village and went to the capital, Kathmandu, where she got married, gave birth to a girl and soon after was left on her own by her husband. Despite all of the misery Goma has faced in her early life, she has remained resilient, while struggling hard to survive and care for her 10 year-old daughter.
“We become what we choose to be. Nobody is going to come and save me. I have to save myself. Nobody is going to give me anything. I have to earn it,” Goma says.
Goma says one of her saving graces has been her own and her daughter’s participation in a Family Literacy Programme offered by Shikharapur Community Learning Centre as part of UNESCO’s Capacity Development for Education for All (CapEFA) Programme. The classes for adults enabled her to develop reading and writing skills and greater confidence.
©UNESCO Nepal
In Nepal, the adult literacy rate is 65.9% (men 75.5% and women 57.4%), according to the 2011 Census, and hence the need for the innovative family literacy classes. Run by Shikharapur Community Learning Centre, the classes offer learning in a family environment, as mothers and their children sit together and share their experiences. So far, 80 women and children have benefited from the pilot phase of the project. The plan is to reach out to hundreds more families in the near future.
©UNESCO Nepal
Adult learning and education plays a central role in helping people overcome poverty and meet their own needs and those of their families and communities. However, in most countries adult education is not a policy priority and adults themselves are often not motivated to join courses. While Goma admitted that she was also initially hesitant to join the Family Literacy Programme, she is now convinced that the classes have helped her make positive changes in her own life and that of her daughter.
©UNESCO Nepal
Goma has been able to learn about the importance of education, the need for a healthy lifestyle, sustainable environmental practices, and the rights of a woman, particularly of a woman living with disabilities. “I am much more confident in what I do and in what I need to do for my daughter,” she explained. The literacy classes not only gave Goma more confidence at her work in the local monastery, but she also feels that she is now taken more seriously and is being given greater responsibility.
Goma is currently leading family classes up to three times a week – where she shares her experiences on different issues with the children. As a parent leading the class, she is coached by a teacher to prepare for her lesson. This inter-generational approach allows people of all ages and backgrounds to learn together, enriching the educational and learning process.
©UNESCO Nepal
The Family Literacy Programme in Shikharapur Community Learning Centre is a pilot initiative of the Non-Formal Education Centre of the Ministry of Education of Nepal as part of UNESCO’s CapEFA Programme and benefits from the support of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning and the Hamburg Teacher Training Institute.
Funded by voluntary contributions from the governments of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, the CapEFA Programme seeks to empower Ministries and public agencies of least developed countries with the capacities to improve their national education systems.
In Nepal, CapEFA aims to strengthen the capacities of the government at the central, middle, and local levels to efficiently plan, implement, monitor and evaluate literacy and non-formal education programmes in a lifelong learning perspective.
CapEFA is currently providing support in education to 28 countries around the world.
