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Education and dreams
APR 30 -
The scene is spine-chilling: somewhere in the high mountains of Karnali, an unnamed child is buried alive in a snow-slide with seven of his family members. The child was there to gather the mysterious Yarsagumba. His parents could have made him accompany them, or, he could probably have dropped out of school for two months like the thousands of other children in Karnali. We are not told how he reached the slopes; instead, we are reminded that Karnali’s school-going children do this every year, all in the hope that Yarsagumba may bring their families adequate income that enables them to be educated.
This is a scene from In Search of Education, an unreleased documentary that tries to portray the state of education in Nepal by contrasting its evolution with the present. Made independently and self-financed, the film is the dream project of Jiban Bhattarai and Binod Karki, who toiled four long years struggling between jobs to complete the project. This documentary is a reminder of the hopes that all of us put on education, and yet, is a stark glimpse into the difficult realities of education in Nepal.
It is amazing how much of a premium we put on education. We believe it to be the great redeemer; that it will give us social mobility; that it will raise our incomes; and that it will change everything about the way we live our lives.
And, as the documentary shows, those in Karnali also live in hope that education will change everything for them. Hope, because that is the only word that can describe a sixth-grader’s explanation on why he teaches kids younger than him: “I studied in this same school, and education is something that one must share.” Hope is also the word that props to mind, when one meets the teacher who has to take four different classes at the same time. “I teach grade one, give them some lessons to learn, then move to grade two, where I do the same. Then I move to the other two classes, and I give them homework,” the nameless teacher says in the film. His school is a remote, and dilapidated, building that consists of nothing but a tin roof and broken benches. Yet, children walk four hours every day to study under the same teacher.
Of the nearly 6.5 million Nepali children enrolled in schools today, 95,000 are enrolled in schools in the Karnali. It remains Nepal’s most under-developed region without a doubt, and it is to this region that Bhattarai and Karki have devoted an hour of their 90-minute film. The aptly-titled film is, at the same time, also an ode to the history of education in Nepal, beginning from prehistoric times to more recent developments such as school education under the Rana oligarchs, and the establishment of Tribhuvan University.
This historical record is an important reminder to the present scenario, as it portrays how, despite their self interests, members of the Rana family were important in bringing modern education to Nepal. Yes, the Ranas did restrict education to a select few, but that was the spark needed for Nepalis who wished to study. And, ultimately, the few educated individuals were the ones to spearhead the 1950 democratic revolution.
At the same time, this historical record is one that needs to be archived, for it chronicles various educational movements that occurred in Nepal at different periods of history. For example, one automatically recalls the emphasis the Malla Kings put on education, but not so much the Licchavi dynasty, which was probably the first dynasty to systemise education.
But the overarching theme of the film remains the quest for education, and the filmmakers do not waiver from that. It moves from the historical perspective to the current scenario, allowing the viewer to shift gears seamlessly. In today’s Nepal, the focus is on Karnali, but as the filmmakers explain, “Karnali is just a representative of the Nepali education system today.”
Indeed, Karnali’s plight is a microcosm of the overall system. For, does one really expect students who herd their cattle, walk four hours to school, and study in classrooms without a roof to compete with students from Kathmandu? This is reality in Karnali, but children studying in schools just outside the Valley also face similar situations.
Yet, at the same time, there is a realisation that the children can do nothing much, except make best use of the facilities they have. Like the child in an empty classroom says, “All my classmates have gone to pluck Yarsagumba, but I don’t want to. I want to study.”
There is despair in that statement, but there is hope as well. And it is this hope that still makes children brave the fierce altitudes and difficult terrain to pluck Yarsagumba, for, without a rich harvest of the herb, “My parents cannot send me to school.”
Bhattarai and Karki’s film remains to be released. They hope that it may bring the required attention to Karnali’s pathetic education system, and are in the process to finalise all edits. Still, they are aware, “Our film may not even be understood by the people whom we made it on.”
Jiban Bhattarai, 30, and Binod Karki, 34, first met when Karki went to Pokhara in 2004 as a freelancer. Bhattarai was also freelancing at the time, and they were both involved in the production of television programmes, ad-films, and documentaries. The two then got together, and decided they wanted to do something on their own, a project that would be “worthwhile”. That is how the roots for In Search of Education germinated. The two spoke to Amish Raj Mulmi about their project, and the dismal conditions in which students even today are studying in the Karnali.
How did the idea for In Search of Education come about?
Jiban Bhattarai (JB): After both of us met, we thought of doing a documentary together, and we boiled down to the subject of education because it was close to our hearts. Then we started our research; I would research while still in Pokhara, while Binod would research from Kathmandu. That was the first phase, which took over a year because of the lack of documentation and archival history.
Binod Karki (BK): We registered ourselves as a company, East Channel, in 2004. We needed an organisation as a backup, and also as a source of authority. Nepal has a lot of documentaries within it; there are a thousand different stories to be told. Why we focused on education was because it was an area not many had focused on, and it was very important to us.
JB: This documentary was more difficult than a thesis. The subject itself was very difficult; we were trying to show how education has evolved in Nepal from the Stone Age to today, and the situation in Karnali.
The documentary is self-financed.
How did you manage that?
JB: After we shot for a year, a few organisations wanted to associate themselves with us, but that would have taken us away from our vision. We wanted to show reality, and we decided that even if the documentary took longer than we expected, we will make it with our own funds.
Have you found a difference between how education evolved and how it is
practised today?
JB: The first thing we found was that the growth in earlier times—in terms of education, life skills, arts, and culture—such as during the Malla period is not being sustained currently. Yes, more people are educated now, but they aren’t doing anything for the country. There is this increasing trend of more students going abroad, where things are not secure at all. Even toppers go abroad and do menial jobs there.
BK: We spoke to people who studied during the Rana period, and what we found was how much they had to struggle to get an education. That struggle still continues, but in a different form now. For us, the education system in Karnali is just a representative of the larger Nepali education system.
JB: In Kathmandu, there is at least an awareness regarding the necessity of education. In a place like Karnali, the priority is the struggle to live. Children have to work first, and then think about education. There is also a huge difference between government schools and private schools in Nepal.
Can you explain this difference between
government and private schools?
JB: There is no clear education policy on part of the government. In private schools, one can charge higher fees and make sure that better facilities can be delivered to the kids. The government sets aside 17 percent of the total budget for education, and all government schools are dependent on that budget for their needs.
BK: There are a lot of NGOs and INGOs doing some excellent work in education; however, the initiative has to come from the government itself.
JB: There have been a lot of advancements in every other field than education. Expatriate Nepalis could invest in the educational sector here to improve that.
BK: Mahabir Pun is an example. Similar is Gagan Thapa’s call to teach one another. If our film can lead to a tin roof over one school in Karnali, why not? Imagine, we found all these leaders who had studied in Durbar High School, but none of their children study there today. Instead, the children of rickshaw pullers, roadside vendors, and other similar people study today at Nepal’s first school.
JB: In Karnali, there are school children teaching other children. There are schools with only one teacher. There are schools without any roofs. There are schools where children walk for four hours to come to study.
Why has this difference crept up in Karnali?
JB: Karnali is as geographically remote as it is politically. When Nepal got rid of the Rana rulers in 1950, Karnali people only found out about the change in governance a year later. That too when a helicopter came and dropped pamphlets saying they were no longer under the Ranas. That difference still exists.
BK: The economic problems are still the biggest problem. They don’t have economic opportunities out there. We’d taken medicines as first aid, but everyone we met wanted us to give it to them.
JB: I asked a man with six children whether he had heard of condoms. He said they stink, and were of no use. I asked him how would he raise six children? He said they will raise each other; that’s how they were brought up, and that’s how they will continue.
What do you think this documentary will do?
JB: We want to show how education was practised yesterday, and how it is being practised today. We want to show there isn’t much difference, and the struggle still continues.
BK: We want to awaken all concerned agencies about the situation in Karnali. There are slogans, but education is restricted to only that.
JB: The people in Karnali may not even understand our documentary, because they aren’t educated enough. This film is for everyone who is involved in education.
Posted on: 2010-05-01 10:02
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