Sample Student Achievement Data from Bajhang’s Talkot cluster

June 2016 | Bajhang

Bajhang District is located in the remote Far Western Region of Nepal. OLE Nepal worked with development partners and local bodies such as the District Development Committee (DDC) and concerned Village Development Committees (VDC) from 2013 to 2016, to provide technology infrastructure to 43 schools in 3 phases, for the laptop program. The entire program was implemented in partnership with the Department of Education (DoE), the World Food Programme (WFP), and Embassy of Finland’s Fund for Local Cooperation (FLC). During the project period, OLE Nepal worked closely with the Bajhang’s District Education Office (DEO) to plan and execute the programs, including community participation, teacher training, laptop deployment, monitoring and support. The number of schools reached each year is mentioned in the table below.

Year	No of schools
2013-14	10
2014-15	13
2015-16	20

The 43 schools in Bajhang district, that were recommended by the Bajhang District Education Office (DEO), are successfully running our laptop program. The schools were selected as the conclusion of the field visit undertaken by a team consisting of DEO officials, World Food Programme (WFP) Sub-Office personnel, and OLE Nepal staff. The teams visited various schools in the area and interacted with communities during the visits. Each school was required to fill out a detailed survey questionnaire on how the school planned to sustain the laptop program beyond the initial few years, what steps they plan to take to ensure success of the program, and how they thought the program would benefit their students. The responses provided by the schools were one of the determining factors in the school selection process. Along with the above mentioned component, schools commitment towards child-friendly learning opportunities was also equally important. It was also important for the schools to have basic infrastructure to carry forward the program with same determination and dedication as well as to have strong community support.

All 43 schools’ teachers have completed our widely-acclaimed three-stage teacher training program. During the refresher training of Bajhang Phase III, the teachers of program schools were asked to bring Annual School Achievement Data from their schools. The graph below represents student achievement data from a cluster of five schools in Talkot area of Bajhang Phase III schools.

The graph shows the comparison of student achievement from last academic year before the introduction of digital resources and laptops at the schools, against the current year’s data. While we are aware that many factors contribute to the improvement in student learning, we believe that the increased interest in learning and access to better resources have played a major factor at these schools. We can hope that effective integration of digital materials in the classroom practices will enhance student learning and lead to better results in future.