Imagining going to school for the first time and being expected to learn in a language you don’t know. This is the experience of many children from ethnic minority groups in Nepal, like the kids from Magar communities in Rukum district.

No wonder they didn’t like school, didn’t want to attend, and didn’t learn much when they did come! The teachers tried, but most of them couldn’t communicate with the children in Kham Magar, only in Nepali. The community was very concerned that their children were not learning to read.

Together, UMN and its local partner MIC began to teach people to write textbooks for the children in Kham Magar. Everyone was very enthusiastic, and now books for Grades 1 and 2 are available, helping young children learn the curriculum in their own first language.

“We never expected to have books in our own language,” says Sangita Budha, a Grade 2 student. “I can understand the work clearly, and I am also learning Nepali.”