Teaching English in Nepal

Nepal is one of the poorest and least-developed countries in the world. A large proportion of the population live below the poverty line and there is widespread unemployment. With great trekking and adventure sports potential, there is a living to be made from the tourist industry, and so learning the English language is one way in which people can improve their chances of building better futures.

Donating your time as a volunteer English teacher in Nepal is a great way to spend your gap year, career break or an extended holiday. You can gain invaluable work experience without any previous experience and you do not require a TEFL. Your English speaking abilities, energy and enthusiasm are all that is required to make a difference in schools where there is a lack of conversational English language-teaching. The impact you have on your students will be obvious as they start to develop their language abilities, but you will also be part of a much larger network of volunteers, which is making a positive and ongoing contribution to the wider community. Our teaching placements are based in and around the bustling capital city of Kathmandu in basic but welcoming schools. The main resources you will have in your classroom are a blackboard and a piece of chalk. Despite this, the enthusiasm of the children and the appreciation of your colleagues are sure to make voluntary teaching in Nepal a highly rewarding experience. We work with around sixteen schools, in and around Kathmandu, and volunteers can choose between teaching in primary schools, with children aged between about 4 and 12, or in secondary schools, with children aged 13 to 18. On average, a class has around 30 pupils, and a volunteer will normally be in charge of half a class, the other half being taken either by another volunteer or a local teacher. Most of our teaching placements require you to work up to four hours per day from Monday to Friday.

Any volunteers who have experience working with children with learning difficulties will also be welcomed as we have recently begun working with a new school that encourages children from care homes to study alongside students from middle-class families. All income raised by a school trust is to be used to develop the school's facilities and to give scholarships to gifted students from poor rural villages.

Most volunteers in Nepal stay with a local host family, and those volunteering on a teaching project are likely to find themselves living very close to the school they teach at, possibly even with a teacher or the school principal. Living in such a close-knit community will allow you to learn a great deal about typical Nepali life and will greatly enhance your experience of the country. You will rapidly feel like an integrated part of the local community, although you are sure to stand out from the crowd and may find yourself treated as something of a local celebrity!

The children will often have some English language skills but there is always lots of room for improvement. Your most important resource is yourself; your knowledge and your interests, so be sure to draw on them whenever possible. To do so will greatly enhance both your students' and your own experience.

Local teachers are often very capable at providing their students with a good structural knowledge of English - the grammar and the vocabulary - but, having had very little conversational English practice themselves, they often lack the confidence to get the children speaking English. Once you are able to break down this barrier, however, you are likely to find that students and teachers alike will be able to make rapid progress, as the knowledge they have stored in their brains is suddenly given an outlet! Although your main role will be to teach English you may find that you also want to help out by coaching the football team or setting up an art club at lunchtimes. Your skills and abilities in other areas will make you even more popular within the school, and you should be sure to let us know about them on application, so we can match you to the most suitable placement.