Education has remained a rigid institution in Nepal, where the numbers on the mark-sheets reflect the level of accomplishment. Worryingly, this has pushed the motive of learning to the backseat, effectively undermining the core concept of education itself.

CG Education, a segment of Chaudhary Group, has been quick to recognize this ailment in the system and have been taking and encouraging corrective actions in this regard. Their first establishment came in the form of The Chandbagh School in 1996; and with this began the instigation of their efforts to instill the attitude of learning in students through all their institutions. CG Education encompasses schools from pre-school to mainstream schooling under both CBSE and HSEB boards, ranging from kindergarten to post-graduate level.

To further elucidate what CG Education has been focusing on we talked with Mr. Bhushan Gurung, Academic Head and Mr. Sabin Joshi, Business Unit Head at CG|Education.

TNM: What is wrong with the current scenario of education in Nepal?

CG|Education: The education system in Nepal has always had narrow scope; it has been overrun by the goal of attaining a degree as opposed to the actual process of meaningful learning. We are not dejecting the importance of the quantifiable reflections of the education received, but it is very important to balance textbook knowledge that is memorized and purged onto the exam papers along with the overall conceptualization of the academic knowledge that the textbooks intends to convey. If a student is going to forget practically everything he learned a week after the exams, the entire purpose of education has failed.

TNM: Tell us about CG Education and how it expects to reform the education system in Nepal?

CG|Education: Like we said earlier, education in Nepal has different aspects, which means the attainment of a degree is very important. However, we do not perpetrate the notion that education is solely about that which is why we believe in a system which is holistic and all encompassing. Learning and education has to be selfmotivated, practical and related to the present context in order to be effective.

In order to make this possible, we are fervently dedicating our institutions to create an environment where learning is fun and not forced upon students. If children find coming to school an ordeal in itself, they are never going to want to learn for the sake of gaining knowledge. As educational institutions, it is our responsibility to create an environment where students will want to willingly come everyday and enjoy the process of learning.

Our mission is to build an education brand synonymous with quality, scale and dynamism in Nepal.

TNM: We agree with the notion of integrating practicality into education. Could you give us some insight into how this is being executed?

CG|Education: We are mixing things up so that what the students take away from school is more practical when a student completes his high school and starts heading into the professional world.CG Education is trying to support and initiate many socio-educational initiatives in Nepal.  In fact the CSR focus is and has been related to the uplifting education and its growth. This is because by up lifting education we are trying to directly contribute towards the growth of the nation. We plan on having student exchanges where students can interact with other students and find new perspectives on how things work in the world.

Take Round Square for example. It is an association of schools in which our students volunteered for earthquake relief efforts along with 43 more children who came from all over the world. They worked together in a team to rebuild a local school that was damaged in Bhaktapur. It is an essential way in which a child’s values become practical. We are also following V-Star, which is a kind of a Buddhist curriculum value education system in which we focus on helping others but also in a proper and scientific way. This system basically teaches students to add value to everything that they do so that things turn out better and efficient.

TNM: And it is also great that students are encouraged to explore their passions.

CG|Education: The quicker we realize that the world is not all about book smarts, the sooner will the perception of education be corrected. We have always encouraged students to explore past the boundaries of conventional education because the last thing we want to do is suppress the inner passion and talents of any student. A child might be born with the destiny to become a musician, an actor, a carpenter; we want to nurture any and every sort of talent that a child might have.

Similarly, CG Education believes in teaching through sports. Sports and fitness are an important factor in growing young adults.

TNM: The efforts to shift away from the norm are noble and very much required in the field. How has the reactions of the parents been?

CG|Education: We are still deeply rooted in the traditional system and it is going to take time to change. Although, the parents are very happy about their kids being involved in life skills at the end of the day they still look forward to good results and percentages on paper. Hence it is our job to maintain the ever-crucial balance that the parents and students appreciate.

And the parents who appreciate these life skills are just a small fraction of the whole educational system. We do face some criticism from time to time it is important that what matters is creating a better future for the children.

The future generation will have to deal with the need of practicality when it comes to getting jobs or starting up a new venture because what we learn today might become obsolete tomorrow. You need the ability to unlearn what you have learned and relearn new techniques that are More  up-to-date with the dynamic environment.

TNM: Tell us about your education model.

 

CG|Education: We operate through a model called Chaudhary Group Education Educational Model (CGEEM). In this model academics is considered as the nucleus of the whole system followed by Extracurricular activities (ECA) cocurricular activities (CCA), discipline, values and all that is surrounded by the MI (Multiple Intelligence), 4 Q’s ( Intellectual, Physical, Emotional and Spiritual) and   7C’s of Life Skills which includes: Critical thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, Cross-cultural understanding, Communication, Computing, Career In this model we are trying to create a multi-dimensional environment where every activity is put up on a selfassessment activity and we check all the areas. We also make it a point to assess the students as well the teachers. Likewise, we strictly follow the ASK (Attitude, Skill, Knowledge) model where we give the most priority to attitude then skills followed by knowledge. Skill and Knowledge can be attained through rigor and perseverance, but to achieve this the primary requirement is an attitude to learn. We understand that making the model perfected in current context is difficult but we have moving towards this direction and we are confident that we will be able to bring in the changes that we feel is very critical for the overall development of each student.