The Nepalese educational system is demanding, above all after elementary school. The more strict the curriculum gets, the more it begins to carry weight, that the children from carpet weaver families are underprivileged: Their parents cannot employ private assignment help like the better-off families. To preserve these children from a premature school drop-out, Label STEP has brought to life an evening school.

With the transfer to secondary education, the so-called “Secondary level”, for many children from carpet weaver families the problems at school begin. The pupils need support while solving homework and with the self-study, because the Nepalese educational system is very demanding. However, many parents cannot afford the necessary private lessons. Besides, they often only have rudimentary school education themselves and, therefore, are not able to support their children with homework and learning. In addition, the lodgings of the carpet weaver families, which are mostly on the manufacture areas, offer no ideal learning environment. Therefore, many of the 10 to 15 year old children prematurely drop out of school on account of inadequate school achievements. They start working at an early age and have hardly any prospects of good jobs.

Intensive assistance for two hours in the evening

Several carpet producers and Label STEP cooperate to support the children with successful graduation. On six days per week 2-hour evening courses are offered in rooms which during the day are used as day nurseries or private schools at three different places. Here the older pupils get assistance with homework. A total of 120 children and adolescents from 15 different manufactures take part, for example, in the remedial course in Suryabinayak. The evening classes in three existing schools are co-financed by Label STEP for more than three years. However, the factory owners and the parents are supposed to take over the running of the school more and more. By the support lessons and the sense of achievement resulting from it, learning will remain a positive experience for the teenagers which supports them on their way into the future.