Much is being done already. For example, the Curriculum Development
Center has integrated life skills into the primary school health education
curriculum (CDC, 2005). Similarly, teacher training has been reformed to
incorporate methods of delivering life-skills education in the classroom,
including fostering problem identification skills; facilitating discussion,
drawing conclusions and making presentations; encouraging appropriate
feedback; developing relevant instructional materials and using them
appropriately; and facilitating individual and group activities, projects and
exercises (NCED, 2005 and 2007). The topics of peace, human rights, human
values, managing diversity, rights based education, critical thinking, among
others, are now incorporated in the teacher training curriculum (NCED, 2011).
In spite of these reforms, however, teacher training remains more inclined
to pass on skills in information sharing, and does not sufficiently develop
teachers’ ability to foster life skills in the classroom. Another drawback is the
focus on instilling theoretical knowledge, rather than on enabling teachers to
develop pedagogical skills. For example, the peace education curriculum for
teachers includes the topics: elements of peace, types of peace, importance
of peace, ways to establish peace, etc., which means that training is focused
on the content rather than on the skills for delivery and for making the
classroom environment conducive to learning.
Conclusions and recommendations
The focus of Nepalese schools is on achieving quality education for all. One
of the most important prerequisites for good quality education is effective
teaching-learning practices, which are envisioned to be, among other things,
child-centred interactive and inclusive. The government and various other
stakeholders have implemented numerous programmes and projects with
the aim of improving teaching-learning practices in Nepalese schools. The
main challenge in this endeavour has been to support teachers to shift away
from rote-memorization focused lecturing and content repetition towards
pedagogy that makes learning joyful, constructive and reason-based.
Progress has been seen in schools where innovative projects have been
implemented, but when attempts are made to mainstream such projects,
good practices are not transferred. Therefore there is still much to be done. For
innovative methods to be transferable, planning and careful implementation
are needed.