To the kind people who supported my project in Nepal.
Teaching at a higher level in the Himalaya                              Georges Cappelle (Belgium)
The weltanschauungs Buddhism or Hinduism are very important in the life, the behavour and the activities of the people in the Himalaya: communication, helping each other, festivities…Staying several months with those people in that unique landscape in view of the white  mountain peaks of more than 8000 meters, is a splendid gift.
The farmers and other people work very hard to survive. There are no machines or cars. People transport their products with a “doko”, a typical Nepalese basket on their back. Oxes plough their fields. The people use their hands for the other work. With much respect for them!
I was lucky to become engaged to my pedagogic(al) project in Nepalese schools. The education level was low because the schools are in want of didactic media and the teachers’ methods. The teachers were trained  hardly, they didn’t have the necessary knowledge and the students repeated texts in old books (reproduction). On the contrary, during my project I used different child friendly challenging methods, inviting the students to creative and productive thinking. The structure, the understanding (the insight) and the training of automatisms and basic skills (addition, subtraction, …tables, listening, talking, reading and writing…) in mathematics and English oral and written communication are preferred. At the same time I paid  attention to the teaching and learning of some very important learning and life attitudes like working precisely, perseverance, taking care of yourself, the others and the environment, tolerance, hygiene…
These (working)methods made a great contribution to(wards) the learning pleasure, the learning process, the learning level and the complete development of the students. At the same time it stimulated the teaching satisfaction of the teachers.
I was happy I could buy with your support valuable didactic materials in Pokhara, 150 km of the project place. I used those media for the instruction, exercises an implementation: looking dvds, playing, writing, telling stories, drawing, coloring, painting…but also manual skills. During the games the students learned to cooperate, to be positive, to wait their turn, to concentrate…the students played with board games, where they must talk English, tell the numbers and operations in English, understand the English rules…
Initially the teachers observed and wrote down the didactic methods I used. Thy copied. Since they participated my teaching and took the class finally little by little over. I supported their work and gave the necessary feedback.
My project improved directly at short notice the students’ learning and development and the teaching satisfaction of the teachers as well. On the other hand it played indirectly at long notice an important part to a better well-being of the local people. There is a vicious circle between the training and the development.
It was a very successful project. The direction, the teachers, the children, the parents and myself thank you again very much for your support.

Kind regards

Georges