New funding to ensure lasting quality education in Nepal

Kavli Trust is awarding NOK 4 million to the education project Schools of Excellence in Nepal. Human Practice Foundation is leading the project, which will establish ten model schools to strengthen and stabilise the school provision for children and young people in the Taplejung district.

Human Practice Foundation has been working in Taplejung, one of Nepal’s most vulnerable areas, since 2017. The work has focused on the entire school experience, where improved school buildings, teacher training, strengthened teaching, and cooperation with parents and local communities have been central parts of the effort.

School development and support for families

The initiative has also strengthened the livelihoods of families in the area, where around 2,000 parents and farmers have received support through entrepreneurship projects and income-generating activities. This has provided more stable incomes and better opportunities for children to attend school and participate regularly in lessons.

– For nearly ten years, Human Practice Foundation has contributed to building up schools and strengthening educational provision in Taplejung. But this is more than a school project – it is about how education and the framework around children’s upbringing are interconnected, and about giving children, young people and entire communities better opportunities for the future, says CEO of Kavli Trust, Ingrid Paasche.

Further developing a successful model

The Taplejung programme is documented as one of the most effective holistic education initiatives in Nepal. So far, 26,500 children have received improved schooling, and more than 1,000 teachers have been trained. At the same time, dropout rates have decreased by 78 per cent and absenteeism by 22 per cent.

In several communities, schools have become more stable meeting points, where teachers are better equipped with teaching tools and parents are more engaged in following up their children’s schooling.

With the new grant from Kavli Trust, Human Practice Foundation will build on the positive results. Through an integrated model with ten selected model schools, the Schools of Excellence project will contribute to creating more comprehensive and sustainable structures in the education system in Taplejung.

Strengthening local ownership

The model schools will function as local hubs for educational work, where school buildings, teaching quality, and cooperation with parents and local communities are viewed together and developed in an integrated way. They will also serve as resource centres for teachers and parents in the area, where competence and experience are shared between schools.

Local authorities will gradually take over responsibility and operations, ensuring that the work is locally embedded and sustained over time.

A model with further potential

The approach builds on experience Human Practice Foundation has gained through many years of work in the region, where close collaboration with local communities has been crucial for developing educational provision.

– The new initiative builds on a solid foundation in Taplejung and develops a more holistic model that will be interesting to follow going forward, says Ingrid Paasche.

– The ambition is to strengthen an approach that works well locally and can be scaled to other parts of Nepal, so that more children and communities can benefit from better educational opportunities, she continues.

The project period runs from 2026 to 2028, with a total budget of NOK 5.15 million. Kavli Trust contributes NOK 4 million, while the remaining funding comes from municipal co-financing and the organisation’s own resources.

Facts about the collaboration

• Kavli Trust has awarded 4 million NOK to Human Practice Foundation (HPF) for the HPF Schools of Excellence project in Taplejung, Nepal.
• The purpose of the project is to ensure sustainable, locally anchored quality education in the vulnerable Taplejung district and strengthen the link between schooling and working life.
• This will be achieved by establishing sustainable model schools with strong infrastructure, qualified teachers, parental involvement, and municipal co-financing. The schools will serve as resource centres and will gradually be taken over by local authorities.
• The project builds on documented results from previous work and a model with potential for replication in other parts of Nepal and similar low-income countries.
• Implementation runs from 2026 to 2028, with a total budget of NOK 5.15 million.
• The collaboration between Kavli Trust and HPF began in 2017 and has contributed to the upgrading of 68 schools and improved learning opportunities for more than 26,500 children in Taplejung.