Bringing education to hard-to-reach areas in Nepal

Despite a steady upward trend in Nepal’s adult literacy rate, now at 68%, communities who live in rural, hard to reach locations risk having few education opportunities.

Four out of five people in Nepal live in rural contexts and a 2008 Government survey showed that young people living in rural areas have fewer training opportunities than their urban counterparts, with women being particularly disadvantaged.

CLCs are key to tackling this disparity. The centers are usually set up and run by locals and function outside the formal education system, providing lifelong learning and leadership opportunities to marginalized communities.

UNESCO’s Capacity Development for Education (CapED) Programme has been supporting the government to strengthen CLCs. The Programme assists centres to ensure that their courses are relevant to the community and are in line with the policies and plans at all levels of the federal system.

In 2019, CapED strengthened over 300 CLCs, raising their awareness of SDGs, enhancing coordination with local government in line with the decentralization of education, and training CLC leaders in management and fundraising skills.

Informed by its experience with CLCs, UNESCO is currently supporting the Government of Nepal to develop a lifelong learning policy framework. This will guide Local Education Acts and Plans that will allow provincial and local governments to deliver lifelong learning opportunities for the most marginalized and vulnerable people in Nepal.

Original source: UNESCO
Published on 05 March 2020