Democracy Debates – St Catherine’s spends time with Riviera

Is ‘democracy’ different in practice in Australia and Nepal? Is it perceived differently? And how does an election work anyway?

Performing their "I feel" poems

These were some of the questions explored by class 10 at Riviera, our model school, and a group of visiting girls from St Catherine’s in Sydney. We began with an afternoon of activities to get to know each other, including the groups writing a poem titled “I feel” and performing them for the rest of us.

After Republic Day celebrations in Nepal, the visitors then returned to Riviera for a full day of democracy exploration. The morning began with considering some general questions about democracy and constitutions, including definitions and advantages and limitations. It was interesting to see the similarities between what Australian students learn and Nepali lessons on these crucial concepts – notions of human rights, respect, civil engagement. But there were also some interesting differences, particular in relation to the way government representatives should be elected and how a constitution is drafted. In Nepal, the constitution is in the hands of the government alone contrasted with the right of citizens to vote on any changes to the constitution in Australia.


Australia v Nepal - Democracy in practice

We then moved in to exploring democracy in practice, considering questions such how democracy represents minority groups and what 1 change the students would make to their constitution if they could. Both the visitors from Australia and the Riviera students had some good questions for their other group members and there were some very interesting conversations.

 

It was then time to experience democracy with a mock election for “Nepaust” – the groups had to launch a campaign and then vote with a very closely contested election going right down to 5^th preferences. 

Counting the votes in the Nepaust Elections



The day finished with a thank you presentation from the Riviera principal, Prajwal Koirala, and his team.

 

And the winner is . . . .

A week later, Riviera held their elections for school captain and vice captains, enabling class 10 to put into practice the skills they learned with St Catherine's. It also gave them the chance to share their learnings with the rest of the school as they got the opportunity to exercise their right to vote for their student representatives.

Sujata casts her vote

 

Salik, Riviera's new school captain

St Catherine’s has been working with Mitrataa for 5 years now, sending a group of volunteers to work with our Dream Centres, sharing life skills lessons and ideas. Due to the limited English of the girls in the Dream Centres, these interactions have been engaging but restricted in terms of sharing and learning. This year was the first time they have worked with Riviera and it was great to see some debates and deeper discussions being shared amongst the students. It always amazes me the similarities between teenagers across the globe – particularly where music choices are concerned!

 

Thanks as always to Sarah Hatch, who leads the fundraising efforts at St Catherine’s and who leads the group to Nepal each year. It is always a pleasure working with you, Sarah. Thanks also to the teams at Riviera and Mitrataa who helped to prepare for the workshops.

 



Sarah Hatch receives a thank you from Nirmala

CSU students get the opportunity to practise their flexibility!

Sabitri arguing in favour of tourism

We are very excited to have our second group of CSU students here, continuing our partnership with CSU this year. There are 10 students completing some practical training with Mitrataa for a month. They are accompanied again this year by Trisha Poole and we are very happy to have her back in Kathmandu.

The group was due to start teaching at Riviera, our model school, this week but unfortunately they arrived at the beginning of 10 days of strikes in the lead up to the election here. We had warned them to bring their flexibility and their senses of humour and they have had lots of opportunities to practise both!

Since Riviera was closed due to the strike, the group worked at our hostel, running a debating training and competition for the senior girls and some English reading and grammar and maths for the younger children. Some of the group also spent some time with class 10 at Riviera since they live on the school campus.



Preparing rebuttal!

The children have learned so much and I was incredibly proud of them during the debate competition on Friday on the topic, "Tourism is good for Nepal". We have some definite talent in our group. Thanks to the CSU group for their coaching and training, especially to Rohan for teaching them the skills of a great debate..



We look forward to the rest of their time here, with some time at Riviera and a few more days at the hostel. We really love our partnership with CSU and hope to continue to grow and expand it in future.


The debaters with their coaches from CSU