Bipan Gautam joined the Creative Educators Program (CEP) in 2021 during his gap year in high school. Gautam was curious and wanted to learn things and when he saw the call for applications, he did not hesitate to apply.
“I was exploring what I wanted to do further in life. The CEP seemed an interesting project to be associated with and I am glad I took part in it,” says Gautam.
He says the entire project was a great learning experience which showed him how learning could be made interesting. During the project, he took part in various workshops and group discussions going through multiple education pedagogies that included art and craft.
“I didn’t know learning could be this fun,” he says.
The Creative Educators Program is a year-long journey in which the participants join a community of educators, reflect on the education, explore the current context, learn how to facilitate interactive workshops and discussions, and develop the necessary skills to coordinate art and education projects. The programme was started in 2017 to engage young people interested in the arts and education to help them build the necessary skills to work as creative professionals, community organisers, and arts educators.
The programme for creative minds
“The main vision of the CEP is to build a community or platform that is a safe space for young learners, educators, and creative professionals who value learning and critical engagement,” says Pranab Man Singh, the director of the US Embassy-funded Book Bus programme that runs the project.
The Creative Educators Program only takes people aged between 18 and 26 from Kathmandu valley who are interested in careers in the creative arts and education, willing to experiment and learn from failures, believe education can be a fun playground for creative ideas, among others.
Singh says those who get into the programme participate in multiple training sessions that will focus on various educational philosophies, classroom pedagogies and practices, and project coordination and implementation.
“They go through different workshops and discussions where they learn about education through art, science and even work on how to innovate school curriculums,” says Singh.
As a part of the Creative Educators Program, Gautam took part in workshops that ranged from learning about Nepal’s education history, facilitating group discussion and asking the right questions, civil rights and liberties and media literacy.
“Each workshop focussed on specific issues which opened my eyes to different avenues. It showed me what was wrong with our education system and what we could do to change things positively,” says Gautam.
He says that these sessions were interactive and full of different activities. The instructors even taught them different ice breakers to use and provided resources on conducting a playful classroom.
“This programme aims to produce people for both creative and education sectors. We want to help these young kids and make them industry-ready,” says Singh.
Producing people who are more than teachers
When asked if the programme is similar to the fellowship training offered by Teach for Nepal, the team says it is not. The Creative Educators Program team says the programme approaches are different as it focuses on building the skills of the participants to become creative professionals, community organisers, and arts educators. It means they are more than teachers.
The educational philosophies and classroom pedagogies help the participants create safe spaces for creative expression and learning. Taking that in mind, Pushpa Palanchoke, started Folk Lok, a community-based arts programme that responds to the needs of indigenous music groups in Nepal.
“I’ve been a part of the Book Bus since 2014 and I feel it has aided in introspection in our personal and professional life by engaging us in different creative dialogue with different individuals,” says Palanchoke.
There are many others like Palanchoke who, after going through the Creative Educators Program, have been working for private and public schools, different organisations and some are even working for the Book Bus programme. One of them is Nistha Tripathi who has been a part of the Book Bus since 2016 and is now working as a full-time programme coordinator.
“Participants of the Creative Educators Program are introduced to concepts and ideas that make them reflect on existing social injustices, encouraging them to think about issues critically and analytically. We’re hoping that such a method might help them make more informed decisions not just in their professional life, but also their personal and social life,” says Sachi Mulmi, who looks after communications at the Book Bus program.
And, this is what the team at the Creative Educators Program and Book Bus want. They want the participants from this programme to understand that learning is a lifelong pursuit and that learning happens in communities that foster a practice of reading, writing, critical thinking, and participatory discourse.
“The educational philosophies and classroom pedagogies help the participants create safe spaces for creative expression and learning. The main takeaway for participants from this programme is that learning is a lifelong pursuit and that learning happens in communities that foster a practice of reading, writing, critical thinking, and participatory discourse,” says Singh.
“The participants of Creative Educators Program will also learn how to coordinate and implement projects that focus on community building and engagement.”
