Home: Kageshwori Manohara, Kathmandu, Bagmati

Education: M.B.A., Cardiff Metropolitan University, U.K.

Being a fifth child and the only son in my family, I always thought that all of us were equally loved and treated the same. We all went to private primary schools. However, when it was time to move to a secondary school, my parents enrolled my sisters in a public school while I was sent to a private school. My enrollment in a private school suggests two things. One is discrimination. For the first time in my life I felt that my parents discriminated between their daughters and son. They spent more money for my school fees but were afraid to do so in case of my sisters. Another thing is inequality in education. Not only my parents but also the whole community thought that private schools’ education is better than that in public schools.

One thing was obvious, the SLC results would be better in private school than in public schools. I scored a distinction in SLC studying in private school while my sisters managed to score second and first divisions only. I knew that my sisters were more brilliant and hard working than I was. They had always been scoring higher marks than I did when we were in the same school. So what made it difficult to perform well in their SLC exams? The answer was education inequity; the difference in teaching practices in private and public schools.

While I was living abroad for my further studies, we, students, often had small gatherings. We would spend hours talking of high morality and principles. We talked about how the political situation and traditional way of thinking was making our country poorer. Everyone argued that they ought to return back and do something to change the situation. But these were just conversations that would be forgotten the next day. I actually decided to come back..

I had received many offers of teaching in schools and colleges after I returned back but didn’t want to do it. However, when I came to know of TFN, I felt that it isn’t just about teaching; it’s more than that. That’s why I persevered with the application process.

Joining Teach for Nepal as a Fellow will give me the opportunity to show that even public schools can provide excellent education, provided that there are good teachers. Through the Fellowship I want to help eradicate this inequality of education and make sure that even if a student cannot afford to go to a private school, s/he is not deprived of quality education in public schools. As a teacher, I’ll make sure that girls in my school don’t have to face the same discrimination as my sisters did.