NEPAL: New computer learning brings girls empowerment and education

Girl participants in Room to Read’s programs have included 1,250 (2008) girls with a plan to add 350 more girl students before the end of 2009.

“Access to online resources and educational materials can have a life-changing impact on students,” said Room to Read program partner Paul Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm. “Not only will they have connectivity that enables access to learning materials and communities for the first time, they will also have the opportunity to gain specialized skills and training.”

Very recently, in October 2009, Room to Read launched a pilot computer lab program at the Amar Jyoti Gaunpharka Secondary School in Pokhara (Kaski district). The school in Pokhara is creating a way for students to instantly reach the world via internet through Skype and Google. This comes with a great opportunity for 350 students, many coming from poor families, to study via the program’s 23 computers.

The program in Pokhara is also partnering with OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) Nepal. One Laptop Per Child is the 1995 brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte, who presented the idea with celebration at a January 2005 conference for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

In May 2007, amid some major design bumps, software debates and discussions about teens and web-surfing fears, Negroponte’s vision became a reality, with the help of designers at MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as children in Uruguay began to learn via laptops.

It was quickly discovered that girls and boys do seek out information on the internet from a gender perspective. Girls looked online for doll’s clothes as boys looked for images relating to sex. These and other issues have been discussed and are now being dealt with by teachers and staff alike. Six months ago, OLPC Nepal launched Phase II of an April 2009 pilot initiative (through OLE Nepal) to bring comprehensive computer learning to 26 secondary schools in over six separate districts in Nepal.

Room to Read and its participating school in Pokhara, along with OLPC Nepal share a commitment that girls and boys will be included in all programs equally.

“I am happy that in this age young kids are getting equipped with new technology. These schools piloting the project have set an example for the rest of the country,” said Nepal’s Ministry of Education and Sports Secretary General, Dipendra Bikram Thapa, recently in an IANS – Indo-Asian News Service interview.

Outside of the computer based learning projects for girls, in Nepal’s political arena, women have been showing clear advances.

Women have been gaining steadily in legislative leadership. In May 2008, out of 575 newly elected representatives, Nepal voted 33.21 percent of the constituent assembly seats to women. Many women hope to reach a 50 percent presence of women in the constituent assembly in the coming years.

“There was a time when only women from a high caste could be MPs. This election has changed that. Now it is up to the 191 women of various castes, groups and ethnicities in the constituent assembly to ensure that the rights of 12.5 million diverse Nepali women are protected,” said Jaypuri Gharti Magar, an elected Maoist woman representative from Rolpa who won by a 22,000 majority vote.

_______________________________________________________

[YouTube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR4B1n3zawE?rel=0"]

While trekking in 1998 philanthropist, John Wood, realized that many children in rural Nepal couldn’t afford to go to school and that schools in the poorest regions had a severe and chronic shortage of books. It was a transformational experience that spurred him to start a literacy program in Nepal called ‘Room to Read.’ This is the story of 9 year old dalit girl, Sabina, who comes from a village in the Kathmandu valley. Her experience is not unique to other girls who have been brought into the Room to Read program. This 3:19 min June 2007 trailer is part of the full PBS story found on FRONTLINE World.

_______________________________________________________

For more information on this important topic go to:

• UK DFID – UK Department for International Development, “PSA Country Report Nepal 2009”
• ASB – Asia Development Bank, “Country Diagnostic Studies – Highlights – Nepal Critical Development Constraints,” April 25, 2009
• Room to Read, “Media Center Case Study – Room to Read – Computer Lab,” October 22, 2008
• OLPC – One Laptop Per Child, “Give a laptop. Change the world,” 2009
• Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, “Nepal: Meet the Kamlaris,” April 14, 2009

__________________________________

Women News Network Nepal Correspondent, Punita Rimal, is a freelance journalist who specializes in covering women’s advocacy news for the Asia-Pacific Nepal region. She is a member of Nepal women’s media group, SANCHARIKA.

2007 Pushcart Prize Nominee, Lys Anzia, has also contributed to this story. Lys is a humanitarian journalist and Editor-At-Large for WNN. Her work focuses exclusively on current worldwide conditions for global women.

__________________________________

Additional sources for this article include The Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, UNIFEM, Sancharika Samuha – Communication for Equality, UNGEI – UN Girls Education Initiative, ASB – Asian Development Bank, UNESCO, Open Learning Exchange Nepal, Room to Read Education Programs, DFID – UK Department for International Development, World Bank Publications, OLPC – One Laptop Per Child, MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Sussex – Centre for International Education, World Vision, The World Factbook – U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, IPS and the Kathmandu Post.
________________________________________

©Women News Network – WNN

1 2

Short URL: http://womennewsnetwork.net/?p=6559