Digital Platform Empowering Reading And Learning In Nepal’s Schools
By Jaya Myler
In the hilly rural villages and far flung communities of Nepal, just reaching the nearest major town is a journey that can take days to complete. The majority of schools have very basic infrastructure, and only a few have access to the internet. Some schools don’t even have access to the textbooks they need, let alone supplementary books for reading. Although the government has introduced a ‘book corner’ or reading corner initiative as part of its program to encourage early reading and literacy, it’s quite a challenge for teachers at rural schools just to access books for these reading corners.
For school teachers looking to buy books to support their students’ learning, not only do they need to travel to a major centre to buy books, they have to purchase the books from an approved vendor and have the purchase verified by the government. In 2014, Nepal’s Ministry of Education estimated only 12 percent of schools had reading corners, with supplementary reading materials.
KITAB Bazar
The Education team at World Vision International Nepal have launched an initiative to empower reading and learning at school through an online book platform called KITAB Bazar. The digital platform developed in-house, by World Vision International’s Nepal Innovation Lab (NLab), allows schools to connect with publishers through their local municipalities and ensure that supply chain challenges are minimised and children get their books. The project, which is a partnership between World Vision International Nepal, World Vision Australia, and the World Bank, is part of an initiative run by the Global Book Alliance. To ensure that children have access to better and more relevant reading materials, the project has adopted a Result-Based Financing approach whereby incentives are built into the book supply chain and provided to school principals, publishers, and local municipalities to reward the part they each will play in getting more books into schools.
KITAB (which is the Nepali word for ‘Book’) aims to transform the book market initially in two districts of Nepal using a digital marketplace (kind of like a local Amazon). The online platform includes a tracking system to track all orders. And results are easily captured by the platform — the number of books, which schools have ordered, and which books they’re receiving.
Furthermore, as part of the KITAB (Knowledge Improvement Through Access of Books) Project, schools will receive incentives if they buy books using the platform. If schools order 5 or 10 titles from their own funds, WV will then provide them with up to 45 books (depending on the category of school) for setting up their book corner.
Supporting Literacy And Learning In Schools
Only 6 out of 10 people in Nepal can read or write, and the figure is lower for women — just less than half of all women are literate. Reading during early childhood is a crucial foundation for literacy and future learning, helping to spark children’s imaginations and engage them with language. The availability of age appropriate reading materials is crucial for developing reading skills, hence the importance of having sufficient supplementary reading materials in schools.
Training Teachers To Use The Platform
Recently, the team traveled to remote corners, going to each and every municipality in the districts of Morang and Sunsari, to train all of the head teachers on how to use the platform to order books for their schools. They conducted training with the head teachers of 909 community schools. The project will run in these schools over the next 2 years.
“We expected that it would be difficult to explain the platform to the teachers and get them on board, but they exceeded our expectations,” shared Sandesh Pandey from NLab. “When we conducted initial surveys, only 1–2 percent of schools in one surveyed rural area had book corners set up. We were overwhelmed by the response to our first training session, and how many of the teachers joined. 99 percent of the schools were represented, and those teachers who couldn’t come to the orientation, wanted to get hold of the manual.”
As well as conducting training on the platform, the team also learned a lot about the education system in Nepal and took a lot of input on board from the head teachers. They were also struck by the extremes of how different some schools are in the same district in terms of the classrooms and access to technology and resources. Fortunately all of the schools were in reach of a cellular network, so teachers can use cellphone data to access the platform.
Everyone Wins When Kids Learn To Read
For school teachers, the platform means they can easily access and order books for their students. For World Vision International Nepal, the platform means they can deliver their literacy program to remote and hard-to-reach schools, and gather accurate quantitative data from the platform itself. It also saves a lot of money that would otherwise have been spent gathering data from schools. The Education Department has access to data that shows how funds are being used in each area. For the World Bank and other partners, the platform verifies the purchase and distribution of books and allows the release of funding based on results, as it makes it possible to track which books each school has bought, and the status of book corners in the schools. And children benefit from better access to supplementary reading materials, giving them a strong foundation for reading and learning.
NLab is currently in the process of rolling out the platform, working with publishers to get their titles reviewed and uploaded. Schools will soon be able to start ordering books via the platform. And they have commitment letters from most of the schools saying that they are willing to use this platform and be a part of the project.
Asia P3 Hub has been watching the exciting design journey of this valuable platform with great interest and we can’t wait to see how this project grows to support learning and literacy in Nepal.
This article was written by Jaya Myler, Asia P3 Hub Communications and Marketing Consultant.
Jaya Myler is a non-profit manager with more than 12 years of experience working with international NGOs, corporate and consumer brands, in both developed and developing country settings. She has a strong background in managing projects and programs, and advocacy and communications, and experience working in environmental, education, and WASH NGOs. She is passionate about water and sanitation, education and poverty alleviation. She has experience working on multi-sector partnerships with NGOs, corporates, academia and governments, and is a big believer in the power of cross-sector collaboration to drive innovation and achieve impact. She holds a Master of Media Practice. She is currently Asia P3 Hub’s Communications and Marketing Consultant.
