Art Learning Program and Carnival

Hello from Jyoti Secondary School!

To introduce our school, we are a community school located in the northern part of the Khotang district. It is 270km away from the capital city, Kathmandu, and 15km far from the district headquarters.

We are the only English-medium school up to the secondary level in the district. We are also recognized as an Ideal School, or the standards that other community schools should follow, for our district, ‘Namuna Vidyalaya.

Our school is also well-known in the district, due to our students' good results in national level exams. As such, we have students coming from several nearby villages. We have a student hostel on the school's premises to save students' commuting time, especially for those who come from distant villages. Currently, 70 students are living in the hostel.

To nurture and develop our students' artistic talents, we plan to organize an extensive three-day art learning program for our students conducted by artists invited from Kathmandu. We have also planned for a carnival in the village beside the school. There will be games, competitions, food and opportunities for students to showcase and sell their art. About 150 students will benefit from this program.

We want to develop students' artistic talents through a 3-day art learning program.

Our students love art. They like to play with colors. They like to paint and draw pictures. Despite neither having any formal training in the arts nor having met any artists, some of our students are naturally talented at painting, drawing and crafts, to name a few art forms. They also love to draw pictures on the dusty ground, on desks, and on the back of their notebooks.

As an educator, I have also seen how expertise in these arts can be developed exponentially in their early years. We believe meeting artists and getting exposure to the art world will broaden their horizons in so many dimensions.

In addition, although art training and workshops are common and easily accessible for students in the cities, such programs are rarely conducted in rural areas of Nepal. Art classes in most public schools are beyond their imagination as schools rarely make such plans. This is as the school does not have any funds to organize such a program. Parents also lack awareness of the importance of education in the arts and cannot afford the cost of such programs as most of the students come from low-income families.

This is why in our school, we are trying to place more importance on extracurricular activities alongside regular textbook lessons. We have formed different student clubs such as dance, music, drama, sports and literature. Students will join these clubs based on their interests and talents, teachers facilitate these activities and every club will have its annual plan. Students from the arts club raised this request to have an arts learning program as part of its annual plan.

We recognize our students' artistic talents and would love to give them a shot to find their inner talents and see for themselves what kind of careers they can make out of it. Hence, we would love to host a 3-day art learning program for interested students to develop their artistic skills and interests and understand what to expect out of a career in the arts.

We also want to nurture their entrepreneurial skills through a district-wide carnival.

The school has also made plans for a 1-day carnival this year. This carnival will be a grand one in the district. It will be observed by about 1,000 people from different villages. Schools, offices, and organizations will be invited. Different competitions and games for fun will be organized. Students will organize their own food stalls as well as booths for painting, arts and crafts. Such large-scale events serve as a significant learning opportunity for students to learn about leadership, money management, independent problem-solving, critical thinking, entrepreneurship, honing their artistic talents and putting up art for sale.

Hosting art learning programs and carnivals is an innovative idea that will set the standard to be replicated by other community schools too.

We will need funds for essential materials in the art learning program and setting up the carnival.

Funds we receive from the grant will be used for essential items such as hiring the trainers and buying required materials for the learning program, setting up the carnival stalls and prizes for the competition at the carnival.  

We expect the total cost for the art learning program and carnival to be Rs. 55,000. The carnival will require more funds but the school can also fund some of the aspects of the carnival.