Move 4 New Horizons 
- Award Entered:
UNICEF Sport for Education Award - Parent Organisation:
Swiss Academy for Development (SAD) - Project Host Nation:
Nepal - Overview of Project:
As a main project activity, 15 non formal education (NFE)-classes are held in different rural villages, targeting low-caste children between the age of 5-10, who are deprived of education. After nine months, NFE graduates are integrated into the public school system. By systematically integrating sport and play activities (besides the basic reading, writing and maths teaching) into the NFE classes, the project is taking an integrated approach to education. The aim of the project is not only to facilitate children’s access to public schools, but at the same time to support these children, who have experienced discrimination and conflict in the past, in their psychosocial development. This rests on the conviction that children can only fully develop their true potential if they have the necessary self-confidence, inner strength and motivation to overcome the multiple obstacles they face, to learn and to advance in life. The use of interactive teaching methods and the integration of sport & play activities into the curriculum serves to strengthen these factors in a way that is non-intrusive and fun. The project's success so far shows that this approach effectively meets the specific learning requirements of children from disadvantaged backgrounds and significantly increases their "school readiness". By further spreading the experiences from this project, we hope to contribute to a more inclusive learning environment and to improved educational perspectives for many more marginalized children in Nepal.
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rachel: 03 Dec 2011 - 08:13 GMT
wow, this looks like an amazing project with a huge potential for multiplication! congratulations!
nepalfan: 30 Nov 2011 - 16:22 GMT
Excellent impact! Incredible the programme can achieve such impressive results in a nine-month timeframe!
daniela: 03 Nov 2011 - 14:05 GMT
The project's success so far shows that this approach effectively meets the specific learning requirements of children from disadvantaged backgrounds and significantly increases their school readiness. 97% of the children who graduated from the NFE classes so far could be enrolled in public primary schools, 54% of them are girls. The first long-term assessments conducted by SAD shows that the NFE graduate children score high when looking at educational continuity, with drop-out and repetition rates being significantly lower than the national average: After two years, 94% of the children who had attended the NFE classes in 2008 are still attending school regularly. The repetition rate among the first year’s NFE graduates was 6%. In comparison to National educational statistics, these numbers are very low: Nepal is facing a drop out rate of 24% and a repetition rate of 30% in grade one at primary school on average. These outcomes are even more remarkable if one considers that children with the socioeconomic background of the children in the NFE classes are normally those that are most at risk of dropping out early or having to repeat classes. The NFE graduate children show not only a higher school continuity than average; their performance at school is often higher than the one of other children, too: 35% of the NFE graduate children are among the six best students in class, 12% of them are even among the three best students in class. There is evidence that the innovative approach of using interactive teaching methods and integrating sport and play activities into the curriculum is supportive in achieving these outcomes. Thanks to this teaching approach, a more relaxed atmosphere is created in the classes and a playful interaction between the children is facilitated, in which they lean to integrate into a class of children, to gain trust into a teacher and to build their own self-confidence. This project is thus a real success story in what sport and playful teaching can achieve in the educational sector.
Nick Lee: 31 Oct 2011 - 10:24 GMT
It is amazing to see how easily the task of sustainably integrate marginalized children into primary school is accomplished when using the right tools: Sport and Play, a powerful tool indeed!
j not lo: 28 Oct 2011 - 15:41 BST
The project has been truly successful not only in getting marginalized out-of-school kids integrated into the public school system and make them succeed in a system that loses 30% of the pupils in the first three years, but has also opened the eyes of teachers, facilitators and parents to the importance of sport and play in a holistic development of children. This pilot has to be spread to areas of Nepal, get more kids to school and make sure that marginalization due to caste and social class finally stops by providing access to education. Go for it! You are educating winners!