The development plan of the DMG for the Jana Jyoti school in Duble has the following suggestions:

1. Extension of the school with two nursery classes.

Our comments

This has been achieved already.

2. Purchase of additional materials: textbooks, exercise books, pens, pencils, etc.

This has already been dealt with on an ad-hoc basis and will receive continuing attention.

3. Purchase of musical instruments, such as different types of drums and flutes. So, more focus on cultural education.
Cost: about 50 Euro.

We put it on the list of our ad-hoc projects.

4. The purchase of sports equipment such as chess games.

Football and chess games are listed as potentially presents.

5. Improving the classrooms with wooden floors, doors and the window frames with window glass, so that it is less cold in winter.
The estimated cost is around 850 Euro.

6. The appointment of an English teacher.
The annual salary of a teacher, including 13th-month allowance, is about 900 Euro.

Considered important and we would like to make a contribution.
Knowledge of English is a prerequisite to go on to further education somewhere else (in a city).

7. Bonus payments for teachers.

Not accepted by us. However, we would support the marking of the successfull completion of a project with a celebratory party for the whole community.

8. Extending the school to 10 classes.

Something for the far distant future. Furthermore, we think that it is better to promote vocational training in the country areas, as a continuation of the primary schools. We regard the subjects of agriculture and animal husbandry to be part of this vocational training.
To get vocational training, students should be willing to walk to another village if necessary or even to attend a boarding school, even in their own area.

9. Appointment of a part-time secretary for the DMG and reimbursement of expenses, including travel expenses, for instance to allow the secretary to visit Duble occasionally to check on progress.

We like to contribute to this. We appreciate that the board members of the DMG work hard to help their fellow villagers, but that they do not earn big salaries and also have to support their own family. They work in the trekking business and are therefore not in Kathmandu for long periods. Communication and reporting is therefore sometimes rather slow. It is advantageous to us to improve this.
This is a good point for cooperation between the Dutch organizations that provide assistance in the same area.
In 2009 we started with our contribution.

We will discuss with the DMG how we can best anticipate the plans of the new government in relation to education.

We are no educational experts and we do not pretend to know all ins and outs of the situation in Nepal. We are, however, willing to learn and are therefore open to comments.