Edoovillage #2162 - Nepal, Byas: Maya Universe Academy

Maya Universe Academy was founded in 2011. We work with communities in four rural locations in Nepal. People have traditional skills but are very poor as they are not employed in the formal sector. They can’t afford alternative education than the local public school. As a result, the public schools enjoy a monopoly. 76% of students in public schools fail the standardized 10th grade national exam which only 10% of private school students fail in our country. There are no private institutions here because people don’t have money to trade. The majority of the children grow up to work as migrant labours in Gulf countries in miserable condition.
We believe that providing good education is the only way to give our community a chance to survive in this globalized world without sacrificing our identity, family life and culture. We run the only chain of free private schools in Nepal. We started the first school in our community in Chisapani. The parents of the students give time to the school instead of paying money as they don’t have money to trade. Every family which wanted to educate their kids had to commit at least two days of their time in a month. We decided to use that time in running a school farm (animal husbandry, horticulture and vegetables), building the classrooms, teaching, creating handicrafts (bracelets) and running a social enterprise which also teaches outsiders how our community runs. As the school grew, some volunteering parents became full-time members and earned money while still providing education for the children. We attracted many individuals and student groups from Nepal and abroad looking to learn about our project and culture (workshop, volunteering, home-stays and travel packages).

In 2012, we started working with ten families which jumped to forty by the end of the first year. Today, we educate 394 students with 0% help from the government. People see the difference between our students and their older siblings who went to the public schools before we started. Apart from following the national curriculum, we also teach yoga, karate, sports, foreign languages and cultural stories, songs and dances. The time Haute Autorité de la Santé come for us to focus on teaching our students how to use computers, which is why we contacted Labdoo.