8 the majority of the population even though there are few exclusively Tamang villages.
Despite the substantial cultural diversity within and around the Tamang language community, they have maintained their ethnic identity via their language, culture, and
religion. They maintain the unique kinship system through preferential bilateral cross- cousin marriage and clan membership is an important element of their ethnic identity
Varenkamp, 1996: 9; Thokar, 2008. Unlikely other high castes, the clan system of the Tamang is not structured hierarchically. Rather, as Fricke 1994:31 noted, the Tamang
are an extraordinarily egalitarian people with no institutionalized basis for distinguishing the status of clans.
The main religions of Nepal are Hinduism 81 and TibetanLama Buddhism 11. Other minority religions are Islam, Christianity, and various traditional religions.
8
Most Tamangs say they are Lama Buddhists. The Tamang language community has been successful in the transmission and use
of their mother tongue. The language seems likely to maintain its vitality in spite of increasing education in Nepali and English, and the various challenges related to dialect
differences and standardization.
1.3 Brief Overview of Non-Formal Education NFE in Nepal
1.3.1 Adult NFE in Nepali
―Adult literacy and adult functional literacy programs are generally called Non- Formal Education. Non-Formal Education NFE is a new label for an old
8
This information comes from the web site of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. October 2009. Background Note: Nepal. http:www.state.govrpaeibgn5283.htm.
Retrieved on July 7, 2010.
9 collection of activities and is the term used to refer to almost all adult literacy
programs in Nepal ‖ Kehrberg, 1996:4.
Historically, Nepal had an official policy of one language, one culture, and one
religion Hinduism for 240 years from the middle of the 18
th
century until 1990. During this period, the official slogan was
―One king, one country, one language, one culture‖ to propagate the use of the Nepali language and the Hindu culture of the ruling elites. All
indigenous languages and cultures were banned Hough et al., 2009:160. In the early 18
th
century, the Shah-king of the Khas state of Gorkha, Prithvi Narayan, first united several disparate western kingdoms and then the split kingdom
states of the Malla kingdom of Kathmandu Valley. Thus, the two countries, Gorkha and Nepal, were united creating the current nation of Nepal, and the capital was established in
Kathmandu. Eagle 2000:15 summarized the political policies of the Gorkhas as below: ―…they were able to create a united and secure Nepal in the face of the
continuing encroachment of the British into the area. The Roman Catholic missionaries, who had entered and established missions in Nepal under the Malla
kings, were suspected of covertly supporting the British. They were expelled from Nepal by the Gorkhas and the nation was closed to all foreigners from that time
until 1951. ...The language of the Gorkha kings was the Indo-Aryan language, Gorkhali, now called Nepali.
‖ In 1814, the British declared war on Nepal, and Nepal lost the battle. The British,
impressed by the extraordinary bravery of the Nepalese soldiers, made an agreement with the Nepalese government to recruit Nepalese soldiers to help maintain and extend British
rule in India. Most of the famous Gurkha regiments, from 1815 until the present, were not from the high-caste ruling elite whose first language is Nepali, but from the Mongoloid or
mixed-race people who mostly spoke one of the Tibeto-Burman languages as their first language. Nepali became the lingua franca of the whole Nepalese army including the
10 British-Gurkha regiments Eagle, 2000:15. The Gurkha regiments were educated by the
British in both English and Nepali and fluency in English was a requirement for any Gurkha officer. Children of Gurkha soldiers were often sent abroad for education in
English-medium schools. Thus, the Gurkhas and their children became the first non-elite people in Nepal who could speak English ibid.:17.
Through a series of palace intrigues, a massacre, and a successful coup, Jung Bahadur Rana overthrew the royal family and took over the government as the Prime
Minister of Nepal in 1847. During the Rana oligarchy 1847-1951, Nepal was ―kept in
the worst form of isolation, backwardness and economic exploitation ‖ ibid.:16 because
the Ranas were not interested in nation building at all. To maintain their power, they showed their hostility towards education and repressed their rivals and the common
people. ―Those who did receive education, mainly in exile in northern India and hence in
Hindi, formed the bulk of the anti-Rana opposition that led to regime change in 1951
‖ Sonntag, 2007:208. Prior to 1950, the literacy rate for the whole nation was estimated at one percent
due to the educational policy of the Rana regime, which opposed mass education. Some literacy was ascribed to the religious education of Hindu Brahmins, Buddhists, and
Gurkha soldiers Shrestha, 1977:15. Adult literacy programs with the 3 Rs – reading,
writing, and arithmetic –were initiated only in the early 1940s to train Nepalese as
potential British Gurkha soldiers for India. Illiteracy statistics from 1954 are given as follows in Table 1 UNESCO, 1972:117:
11 Table 1: Illiterate population and percentage of illiteracy of 19521954 Nepal census
Year of census
survey Age
level Illiterate population
Percentage of illiteracy Total
Male Female
Total Male
Female 19521954
15+ 4,808,919
2,190,869 2,618,050
94.9 90.9
99.4
NFELiteracy initiatives in Nepali have been an integral feature of eleven different national development plans since 1956. Plans for formal education have also
taken a variety of forms in accordance with the development plans see Appendix A. ―With changes in the development philosophy and strategies, NFE became a
powerful vehicle for community and human resource development, empowerment and poverty reduction. So, NFE encompasses children, youths, and adults;
disadvantaged and discriminated as target groups
…‖ UNESCO, 2009:1. The latest NFE initiatives are the NFE Policy and the School Sector Reform Plan
SSRP 2009-2015 that the Ministry of Education MoE promulgated in 2007 and in 2009 in line with the eleventh national development plan 2007-2012. Both the NFE
Policy and the SSRP emphasize the right to education in the indigenous minority languages and Nepali as media of instruction, decentralization of educational
management responsibilities, human resource empowerment, inclusive education for the disadvantaged, and partnerships with private sectors and INGOsNGOs NFEC, 2007;
MoE, Government of Nepal, 2009. The SSRP aims at improving the literacy rate among Nepalese population as shown in Table 2:
12 Table 2: Target literacy rate of the SSRP
Literacy Rate: percentage of literate people Base Years
Targets 200708
200809 200910
201011 201112
… 201415 201516
Age group 15-24
73 75
78 80
83 92
95 Age group
6+ years 63
69 76
78 80
88 90
Age group 15+ years
52 56
60 62
64 72
75 Source: MoE, Government of Nepal, 2009:14.
From EFA-National Plan of Action, From Three Year Interim Plan
By and large, the Government of Nepal has adopted diverse approaches for NFE at different development periods as follows Acharya and Koirala, 2006:2:
• governmental sector development approach in the 1950s and 1960s; • integrated rural development approach in the 1970s;
• participatory development initiatives in the 1980s; • liberalization, privatization, and the involvement of civil societies in the
1990s; and • human rights, social justice, and peace approaches in the 2000s.
Specifically for NFEliteracy initiatives in Nepal, the government has adopted and
promoted two approaches: 1 the literacy campaign approach for eradication of illiteracy and 2 a program approach for literacy classes with or without human resource
development empowerment and poverty alleviation efforts. The NFEliteracy providers in Nepal can be categorized as follows UNESCO,
2009; Acharya and Koirala, 2006; Tuladhar, 1997: 1
Governmental organizations GOs– e.g. MoE and other line ministries
9
; Curriculum Development Center; Non-Formal Education Center;
Department of Women ‘s Development
9
For example, the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation.These are the ministries which operate their own education programs based on the NFE
policy in accordance with their development agendas.
13 2
Non-government organizations NGOs – e.g. Aama Milan Kendra; Agroforestry, Basic Health and Cooperatives Nepal; BASE; CEFA; NRC-
NFE; SAATHI, Shakti Samuh, Women Awareness Center Nepal 3
International non-governmental organizations INGOs – e.g. Action Aid- Nepal; CARE-Nepal; Center for Development and Population Activities;
Didi-Bahini JICA; PACT; Plan-Nepal; Rural Education And Development; SATA; Save the Children SC-US; USAID; USC Canada
Asia; UMN; UNICEF; World Education-Nepal
4 Indigenous community-basded organizations – e.g. Bhalmansa of Tharu
community; Eastern Tamang Language Team; Tamang Gedhung Sangh; Guthiof Newari ethnic group; Kirat Yakthung Chumlung of Limbu
community
5 Community Learning Centers CLCs
6 Other organizations:
• Research organization – e.g. CERID of Tribhuvan University • Material production organization – e.g. Janak Education Material
Production Center These NGOs and INGOs have introduced multiple innovative approaches for
teaching adults in their literacy programs including the following Tuladhar, 1997; NRC- NFE, 2001; Robinson-Pant, 2010:139:
• the Alphabetical approach based on Frank Laubach‘s method; • the Key word approach based on the Freirean method;
• the Whole Language approach with Big Books; • Learner generated materials LGM development approaches;
• Regenerated Freirean Literacy through Empowering Community Techniques REFLECT using Participatory Rural Appraisal PRA visual
methods; and • Language experience approach LEA
The NFEliteracy programs conducted by various institutions in Nepal Medel-
Anonuevo, 1996:51 can be classified into four different types of models as shown in Table 3:
14 Table 3: Four models of literacy programs in Nepal
Type Duration
TextbookPrimer Focus
Note Model 1:
12 month literacy +
3 month vocational
course a 6 month basic
course b 6 month advanced
course c 3 month vocational
course a Naya Goreto
10
―New Trail‖ b Materials designed
by SC-US and other organizations
a b basic literacy c practical functional
skills – e.g. farming
and business Community
reading center was used by
the graduates
Model 2: 18 month
literacy course with 3
phases a 9 month basic
course b 6 month advanced
course c 3 month additional
course Materials for all the
phases developed by BPEP
a Basic literacy b c Functional
skills related with health, family
planning, income generation, etc.
Model 3 6 month course
– organized by Adult Education Section
AES of MoE and several NGOs
Naya Goreto Basic literacy
Model 4: 9-12 month
integrated literacy
a 6 month basic course;
b 6 month advanced or 3 month follow-up
course Naya Goreto
Materials developed by SC-US, Action
Aid, WE, BPEP, and AES of MoE
a Basic literacy b Income generating
activities Literacy linked
with saving and credit
programs
The major content of literacy programs conducted by INGOsNGOs are the 3Rs blended with life-related information such as health and agriculture, and contemporary
social issues such as human rights, gender, caste, ethnicity, language, regionalism, religion, and disability.
Except for the second model which ran a nine month-long program, all other models indicate that most literacy agents have run six month-long basic courses using a
Nepali primer,
Naya Goreto
, andor other literacy materials developed by INGONGOGOs. These basic courses were followed by six month-long advanced
10
Naya Goreto is a literacy primer in Nepali which has been widely used for the national literacy programs in Nepal. It consists of two volumes and is based on the theory of adult learning and key word approach.
It has recently been revised to include more social and cultural themes for enhancing more functional aspects of teaching contents. The updated one was available electronically Naya Goreto 2065 on the
government website, www. nfec. gov.np or http:nfec.gov.npindex.php?act=publicationpage=3.
15 courses. Functional literacy was either embedded in the content of general literacy
materials or taught separately in the three month-long vocational courses. It is known that the majority of the participants in the national seminar
11
were in favor of the fourth model. They pointed out two major issues: 1 a six month-long literacy course is not
enough for the illiterate to become literate and 2 the literacy program needs to be linked with the functional literacy activities such as income generating, farming, family
planning, and healthcare Medel-Anonuevo, 1996:52.
1.3.2 Adult Literacy in the Vernacular Languages of Nepal