Life and Education of Children in Nepal: Pre and Post Peace Agreement a Comparative Study

Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. Literature review. 3. Research methods. 4. School going children’s experience on their education and life during ten years armed conflict. 5. Conflict affected children’s experiences about their life and survival after the peace agreement. 6. Findings and discussion. 7. Summary, conclusions and implications. References. Appendix – I. Index.

The ten years armed conflict caused several consequences on school going children, mentally and physically. So his study has focused on (a) what did school children experience their education and life during conflict? (b) How were they experiencing their life after the peace agreement? To explore their experience, a phenomenological case study was carried out in Gorkha district with two male and two female children of aged under 18 during the 10 years armed conflict in Nepal. An in-depth interview was carried out and the information was analyzed by exploring the themes. The findings show that several reasons life (i) extreme poverty, (ii) social exclusion (iii) discrimination, (iv) parental involvement in CPN (Maoist), parents profession, and torture from both the state security forces and the CPN (Maoist); compelled the participants to get affected by the conflict. After the Peace Agreement, they were getting some sort of support from the government and different development organizations. However, the participants were not satisfied with the support as it was insufficient for their sustainable livelihood. Along with the economic, derangement they were also facing psychological and social challenges. In addition, they were not accepted in the society, suffered social exclusion one way or other. The findings also show that the education after the peace agreement had not been in their priority than that of taking care of their family members and sustainable livelihoods. Study concludes on an urgent need for victim-centered and individualized approaches rather one than one size fits all’ approach to address the need. This kind of contextual practice directly addresses the local and individual needs. By this, the needs of the victims can be linked to their vocations for their sustainable future.