We meet up with teachers from Nepal in Much Wenlock

Knighton Rotary meets with “Classrooms in the Clouds” teachers from Nepal.

Last Tuesday evening we met up with a few of the wonderful teachers that we are proud to support through the educational charity Classrooms in the Clouds, based in the Everest region of Nepal. It was also a chance to catch up with trustee Mike Hagen and Nepali educational support worker Samden Sherpa. Also joining us was John Sumner of the Shrewsbury Darwin Rotary Club, who has been to Mt Everest base camp.

Three teachers, Sona, Chhiring and Sarmila, are visiting Britain in an exchange program to learn more about child centred ways of teaching and to swap cultural customs and ideas.

Samden said “When Classrooms in the Clouds first started out, it was centred on building classrooms. We soon realised that without adequate teacher training and building links with the whole community that the children’s education would not improve. The teachers had to be held accountable for attendance and improving the children’s exam results.”

This was something that the Nepali exchange teachers commented on. The head teacher Sally Sixsmith, at their host English school, checks on all her classrooms and teachers daily and really motivates her teachers and is friendly with the students. This is something that is now happening in Nepal too which is encouraging the children to learn independently and ask questions more.

In Nepal recently, they asked for help from the local community in laying out earthing cables in the ground to help with the solar power. They thought it would take about 8 people a week to achieve. Amazingly, EVERY parent in the village turned out to help and it was done in 2 hours! This shows how much the charity is appreciated and supported in the area.

Knighton Rotary are proud to have been supporting Classrooms in the Clouds for nearly 10 years. It was so rewarding to see how far they have come in that time by training teachers, developing safe clean water, building gender specific toilets along with first aid provision and menstrual health awareness to ensure all children can attend school regularly.