Equity in Education in Disadvantaged Districts (EEDD)

World Education supported the Government of Nepal to achieve four goals:

1. Improve Early Grade Learning (reading and math) in 400 schools in remote districts, including developing inclusive strategies to address the needs of children with disabilities.
2. Serve out-of-school children, providing technical support to manage data and build capacity of local government and partners to deliver nonformal education.
3. Reduce disruption to children’s education via School as Zones of Peace campaign and education in emergencies interventions.
4. Build capacity of Government of Nepal to collect, analyze, and plan with education data, including upgrading the Education Management Information System (EMIS)

Under the Early Grade Learning component, World Education and partners worked in 400 schools with 1,083 teachers and 49,000 early grade students in remote western Nepal as well as with education stakeholders at central level. In coordination with central level Government of Nepal stakeholders, World Education developed an Early Grade Reading training manual and Early Grade Math learning materials with corresponding teacher activity book. World Education also built the capacity of district teams including School Supervisors and Resource Persons and engaged more than 9,000 parents. In collaboration with Humanity & Inclusion, World Education piloted early screening for children with disabilities in 40 schools and trained teachers on inclusive pedagogical approaches. The portion of grade 3 students meeting reading achievement targets increased from 15% at baseline to 43% at endline.

For nonformal education, World Education supported the government to develop an equivalency framework for nonformal education programs. We also provided “Bridging classes to more than 7,000 out-of-school girls, with more than 6,000 rejoining formal education after.

Under the “Data Must Speak” component, WEI continued the close collaboration with the Nepal’s Ministry of Education, started in 2006, to develop and strengthen Nepal’s EMIS and build capacity of GoN to manage, analyze, and use data to inform decisions. WEI has played an integral role in rolling out new system developments at the school, district and central level and is currently engaged in adapting the system to the new federal structure. WEI also has provided critical technical to the government to develop Nepal’s Equity Index, which measure equity in the education system to help target resources to address inequity.