Info: NEPAL / NEBS
Below is a brief overview of Nepal with basic information that should also help to better understand the importance of our school assistance project.

Nepal is about 1.75 times larger than Austria (about 84,000 sq km) with about 147,000 square kilometers and is on the same latitude as northern Egypt.
The population of Nepal is just under 30 million, which is about 3.4 times higher than in Austria (about 8.8 million).
Nepal lies between the Asian superpowers India (in the west, south and east) and China (in the north, common border with the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China).

Nepal is an extremely mountainous country (more than 40% of the country's area is above 3000 meters) and can generally be divided into three main zones: the lowland, the Central Plateau and the highland.
• the lowland, the Terai
• the midland up to 3,000 m
• the highland with the Himalayan range (up to 8,848 m - Mount Everest).

The location of our supported NEBS school is the city of Tikapur, with about 60,000 inhabitants, located in the Terai, the lowland region in southwestern Nepal, which has a border with India.
Today in the Terai 47% of the population of Nepal live on only 14% of the land area. Very good irrigation options make it a very productive agricultural region.

Now some about history, state and politics of Nepal.

In the 18th century, by the union of about 50 principalities, the kingdom of Gorkha, which was called Nepal at the beginning of the 20th century, was created.
In 1951 a constitutional monarchy was proclaimed, in which in 1960 all political parties were banned by the king.
From 1996 to 2006, the Communist Party of Nepal (the Maoists) was in a civil war against the monarchy and the Hindu caste system.
After the conclusion of a peace agreement between the government and the Maoists at the end of 2006, the monarchy in Nepal was finally abolished.
In 2008, the constituent assembly proclaimed a federal democratic republic as a form of government, and the first president of the republic was sworn in.
In October 2015, Ms. Bidhya Devi Bhandari became his successor in office.
After the elections on March 14, 2018, Khadga Prasad Oli (leader of the Communist Party) was elected as the first Prime Minister.
Since the last election of March 2023, Ram Chandra Paudel (Nepali Congress Party) is the incumbent president of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.

Nepal is ethnically and culturally a minority mosaic of over 100 different ethnic groups and castes, as well as 124 different languages and dialects.

Next to the religion.

About 81% of Nepal's population belongs to Hinduism. 9% of the population profess Buddhism. Among the larger minorities are 4.4% Muslims. The proportion of Christians is 1.4%. In addition, other small ethnic groups appear.

In a short passage of our film documentary we also show how the mix of castes and religions is treated equally in the NEBS school.

68% of the working Nepalese population work in agriculture, but their share of the gross national product is only 38%.
17% of the Nepalese are employed in the industry, only 3% of the inhabitants work in the service sector.





With 50 million euros the tourism brings about 30% of the total currency, the second strongest foreign exchange is with 25 million euros the export of Tibetan carpets.
Of the approximately 30 million Nepalese, almost 40% live below the poverty line, the average monthly income is 18 euros.

With a GDP (gross national product) per capita of just 1.200 US dollars in 2021, Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world.
By comparison, Austria's per capita GDP for 2021 is around $ 53.332.

What is the educational situation in Nepal?

The future of children in Nepal is uncertain - only half complete the five-year primary school.

The current education system was established in 1971. All nepalese children are required to attend elementary school between the ages of six and ten.

There are no fees for attending the first to sixth grade at state schools.

The Nepalese government is in the process of restructuring the education system. Access to primary school (grades 1 to 8) and secondary school (grades 9 to 12) should be expanded and pre-vocational qualification measures should be introduced in the upper grades.

In reality, however, many children are currently unable to attend primary school because they need to earn extra money or help with household chores. Only half of all children finish the five-year elementary school. On the one hand, this is due to the lack of rural schools and, on the other hand, to the poor education of teaching staff and the associated poor quality of teaching. In addition, there is often a lack of basic things like blackboards, pencils or books. Many families therefore choose not to send their children to schools that are often far away.

The city government of Tikapur decided at the end of 2017 that in the future all private schools for needy students have to grant 10% scholarships - in relation to the total number of students - otherwise the permission to run the school should be withdrawn.

NEBS is currently the only private school in the Tikapur district to exceed this requirement - with more than 20% scholarships.

Extremely questionable is also the disadvantage of girls.

Compared to other countries in Asia, education levels in Nepal are very low. The illiteracy rate (as of 2015) is 35% (women 45%, men: 24%). According to this, women have particularly low educational opportunities. Girls are much less likely to be enrolled than their male counterparts and drop out of school more often. Often, girls have to leave school prematurely because they are married at the age of ten or eleven. Almost half of all 15 to 19 year old girls are married.

With a share in the total number of girls of more than 40% girls, NEBS has been making a significant contribution to reducing the disadvantage of girls for years.

NEBS was founded in 2012 by an enthusiastic group of trained, experienced teachers. The most painful experiences they had previously made in a patriarchal and economically intransparent private school gave rise to the formation of a school that was unusual for Nepal and was run collectively.
Here a socially, sexually and ageally quite heterogeneous teaching body tries to realize an ambitious project in common (= democratic) responsibility, despite the still predominant caste thinking.
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