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This Is Where We Are...

Main Challenges for the School

Beating the Odds

1. Case #: Changing the mind sets of the community towards Government School

In the year 2016, new Headmaster ‗Mr. Raju Sharma‘ joined the Sang Tshalamthang
Government Secondary School. As the enrolment of the Government Secondary School was
very low, he casually enquired with the villagers regarding their choice of the private school. He
came to know that the villagers had one and only reason for their choice of the private school-
‗spoken English‘, which was emphasized at that private school. He conducted a meeting with his
teachers and discussed about the matter; he could encourage his teachers to implement spoken
English at the school. But at the same time he was told that the students were very poor in
English as they lack vocabulary.

The Headmaster of the school came up with an idea and provided each classroom with an extra
white board. This particular white board was used as an English corner; where everyday a new

sentence was written in English along with its Nepali translation and by the end of the day

students shall memorize the sentence. For this, Headmaster himself started writing simple
sentences in English on a daily basis and at the end of the day; he ensured that the students of

each class have memorized the sentence. In this manner, every year the students had a chance to
learn more than 200 new sentences (as per RTE Act, 2009, we have not less than 220 working

days each year) which helped them enrich their vocabulary.

As the news spread, the following year the Panchayat member of the village took out her three

grandchildren out of the private school and enrolled them at the Government Secondary School.

These days, the students of the Government Secondary School try to talk in English and the
enrolment of the school has also increased a little. Now the villagers have started changing their

mindsets towards the school. Use of innovative idea could bring about a shift in the mindset of

the community members, who instead of devaluing the Government School, started to enroll
their children there.

These days, Headmaster need not write the sentences on the board- rather the senior students of
the school have taken charge of the English corner of lower classes and the English teachers have
been taking care of senior classes. In this way, more leaders have been created in the school for
the sustenance of the innovative practices.

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