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Introduction

Materials by RBF

Set Collected by RBF

Teaching based solely on textbooks has been a common practice in Nepali classrooms. The assumption has been that rote memorization of the text is a necessary and sufficient condition for effective learning. On the contrary, students function best when they are able to work with material in a meaningful manner. They need interaction, active participation, hands-on learning experiences and lessons they can relate to in order to develop in a holistic way.

One can make a sweeping statement and say that rote learning and reproducing the text in the examination has been responsible for the sorry state of education in Nepal. This is why the socio/economic indicator of Nepal is falling far below the "developing" countries, and statistics of Nepal present themselves as outliers in the analysis. Boring classrooms that do not allow for active participation and hands-on learning is the prime cause of school drop-outs, uneducated and unskilled youth cannot have a productive life, or help build the nation.

Realizing that primary classrooms cannot solely depend on text books and the teacher's explanation of it in the blackboard, RBF has found it necessary to ensure that a basic set of material for classroom use is to be made available to schools that are partnering with the Foundation so that the teachers would not fall back to "chalk and talk" once they are back to their own schools. A set of basic and durable material would allow the teachers to make lessons more meaningful and fun for students. The material created by RBF is durable, reusable and essential for conceptual understanding across the curriculum. RBF believes that school must have, and teachers must use teaching materials to deliver effective lessons.

RBF's set comes in a tin-trunk, and consists of material that the Foundation has developed by itself, and material that is collected from the local market. The materials described below are considered a necessary minimum for all schools.