Our plan
The Dream Centres project was inspired by 2 main challenges facing school kids in Nepal: 1. Schools in Nepal generally teach through rote learning – “you listen and repeat”. This method doesn’t work for all students. Some really struggle to do well simply because the learning environment is incompatible with the way they learn. It also doesn’t teach them important life learning skills. 2. Many Nepali kids grow up in a single room in which the whole family eats, sleeps and lives. Imagine trying to do your homework on your parents’ bed while your mother cooks dinner and your siblings watch TV in the same room. It would be a challenge! So in a nutshell, Dream Centres prepare Nepal’s kids for the future – teaching them skills for learning, skills for life. Beyond tutoring to mentoring – they are tutoring centres with a twist, providing kids with a fun filled place to do their homework and learn important skills. Through the Dream Centres, we aim to provide kids in Nepal with 2 different categories of skills which are so critical to their future and the future of Nepal: 1. Skills for learning – organisational skills, interpretation skills, creative skills; and 2. Skills for life – skills to help them determine their passions, their dreams and how to take control of their futures.
What we did
In conjunction with local NGO partners in Nepal we devised a model for the Dream Centres that would best help school kids in Nepal. We wanted everything about the Centres to be different, exciting and fun. The tutoring methods in the Centres are learner focused and based on models such as Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences to allow the kids to learn in the way they are most comfortable. The kids are also taught practical study skills to help them do better in school – reading and writing skills, creative skills, organisational skills, problem solving skills. Identifying kids’ passions is another focus of the Centres and an area that is sorely needed in Nepal. At the Dream Centres kids can learn to discover their strengths, what they are good at, what they enjoy doing. These skills will be invaluable in helping them to determine their futures. We will then work with the kids to help them take control of their futures, giving them ideas and possibilities for their career paths. To deal with the issue of funding we have promoted the Dream Centres to corporations as a model they can use for the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs. Interested employees can become involved in raising funds for their own Centre, in most cases their company then matches their efforts with funds or resources of some kind. The most rewarding part of this program is that some of the employees then travel to Nepal to set up their Centre including doing the painting, decorating, library set up, computer set up, and in some cases they help with some of the initial teaching. The amount required to fund this sort of program is fixed so that there is sufficient funds to cover running costs of the Dream Centre for the first two years by which time, we will have finalized a model which will enable the Centres to be sustainable.
Our results
It’s early days yet but we have had a very positive response from all those involved in the pilot centre so far – the kids, the teachers from the schools we work with, our NGO partners and the tutors involved. The tutors for the pilot centre have started their training and are having a fantastic time being involved in something creative and new. We expect to have 20 kids per centre each afternoon but the trickle down effect means the results will be much more widespread – the kids will pass on some of the skills to their friends, the teachers from local schools will benefit from some of the activities in their classrooms, etc.
Add to the discussion
Your email address won't show up with your comment.