CAIRN Educational Awards
Background
Education in Nepal is still not compulsory.
At primary level, although education is free, students are still required to provide their own uniform and school supplies.
At secondary level, the financial demands on families increases and in addition, they must pay for school and annual exam fees.
With over 43% of the population in Nepal living below the poverty level, most rural families are sadly forced to chose survival over an education.
The educational system in Nepal relies on students to pass their end of year exams and in the case that they are unsuccessful; they must pay to resit the year and the exams.
It is common to find children aged 9 or still in the first school levels (Grade 1 or 2).
The end result is that only a third of all children go on to sit their School Leaving Certificates.
As in many developing countries, girls have less access to an education due to economic and cultural biases.
Girls that do attend school often leave before the age of 12 to care for younger siblings, to help with household chores or to get married.
However, the benefits of educating girls are huge: families of literate mothers have higher standards of hygiene, lower birth rates and an increased likelihood of future generations of children going to school.
What is The CAIRN Trust Doing?
Four years ago, the CAIRN Trust launched the CAIRN Educational Awards programme as a means of alleviating the financial burden of education on some of the poorest families so that their children can attend school regularly.
The CAIRN Educational Award (CEA) is a recurring annual grant which funds all of a students school related fees and provides them with a uniform (clothing, backpack and shoes) and basic school supplies including books, pencils, rubbers and pens. Students receive the supplies twice a year, once in April/May at the beginning of the academic year and then again in October/November.
Three areas which are pivotal to the success of the programme are the commitment from the communities involved; the thorough needs analysis to identify the most fitting recipients and the thorough monitoring undertaken by the team of trained social workers. The CEA recipients' progress is monitored termly, both at home and school to review their school attendance and performance and to identify any obstacles and challenges.
Currently 1,000 Nepalese students' education is being supported through CAIRN Educational Awards for at least the next four years across eight rural communities. Of the total CEA recipients over 69% are girls.
Due to poverty, 35% of children who start school at 6 years old will have dropped out by the age of 10
(DFID)
Future Plans
Although there are thousands of children within rural communities who would benefit from CEA support, we are sadly only able to help up to 100 of the neediest candidates within each community. It is a challenging, and heart-wrenching decision deciding who should receive our support.
However, with donors support, our goal over the next five years is to increase the number of CEA recipients by 200 additional children each year.
We will continue refining and improving the CEA package to ensure that it is the most cost effective and appropriately supplied. Since the programme started four years ago in May 2008, improvements have included replacing ink pens with biros, providing a better quality of text books and stationery and including tuition classes for the children in the older grades of Grade 8,9 and 10.
The CEA programme is delivered in partnership with rural communities and our implementation partners, SATHI Nepal.
