Nepal
Grant Aid for Community Empowerment
Exchange of contracts with Save the Children Japan, for the technical assistance of the Project for Basic Education Improvement in Support of the School Sector Reform in Nepal.

In Nepal, the enrollment ratio of primary education is gradually improved, but the promotion and completion rates still remain low. Considering this situation, the Government of Nepal has formulated and begun the program to improve the basic education since 2009. It aims to provide primary education to all of 5 to 12- year-old children and to completely popularize a primary education among the people by 2015. Also it intends to expand the secondary education along with the primary education. In February 2012, with the intention to support this program, following the request from the Government of Nepal, the Government of Japan decided to conduct "The Project for Basic Education Improvement in Support of the School Sector Reform in Nepal".

Under this Project, JICS procures, on behalf of the Government of Nepal, the construction materials and school furniture such as desks and chairs for 350 schools comprised of 700 classrooms in 8 targeted districts, where the demand for the classroom is at high level due to its shortage compared with the number of local students at the moment.

When construction materials and furniture have been delivered to each targeted district, School Management Committee (SMC), which is organized by local people, and schools will begin to construct classrooms with the support of District Education Office (DEO). By providing 700 classrooms as planned, it is anticipated that 35,000 students will be able to go to school. Furthermore, this Project also consists of such technical assistance as (1) to strengthen capacity of district-level education officers on capacity enhancement of school management, (2) to improve the quality through teacher training on child-friendly education in targeted schools, (3) to enhance the ability of school management at targeted schools, and (4) to develop the ability of teachers at targeted schools.

As a procurement agent for the Government of Nepal, JICS is fully responsible for this Project by managing the funds and procuring construction materials as well as consultancy services for technical assistance. Under this background, JICS exchanged the contracts with Save the Children Japan (SCJ) on May 8, 2012. SCJ is in charge of implementing the above services from (1) to (4) for 3 years to come.

SCJ supports to enhance the ability of SMC through a community mobilization, establishment of School Improvement Plan (SIP) and other activities. Moreover, SCJ prepares and organizes teacher training sessions in collaboration with DEO with regard to SIP, Child Club and Child-friendly education.

As one of the problems of basic education in Nepal, a number of students fail to move on from lower-level education to higher-level and then drop out of the school, although they wish to study at school. This is caused by the problems that teachers do not have teaching skills adequate for students' growth, the language used in school is different from students' mother tongues, and etc. Considering these situations, this Project strives not only to improve educational situations through procurement of construction materials and furniture for the classroom construction by the Government of Nepal, but also to realize well-prepared conditions for students study through technical assistance.

Among the projects under the Grant Aid for Community Empowerment, this is the first case that technical assistance is provided by NGO for school management combined with the school construction.

Playing significant roles in the same field of international cooperation, both of actors, JICS and SCJ, shared project experiences in such areas as Afghanistan, Myanmar and other countries.

Through the implementation of this Project, it is expected that improvement of the educational environment will lead to providing better education for students, and to enhancing the abilities of teachers and education officers in targeted districts.

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