jANA UDDHAR SECONDARY SCHOOL



About THE sCHOOL





Jana Uddhar Secondary School is located in Chunnikhel, Chapali on the outskirts of the Kathmandu valley. It currently has 300+ students in its classes K through 10. It is the first charter school in Nepal. They have a dedicated team of staff under the management of its Principal Mr. Pete Pattisson. The school's motto is to make the school the first choice for parents in that community in the next few years. They also have two full-time staff members who will be responsible for the day-to-day operationalization of the new computer lab.



Project Partner





The Rotaract Club of Durbarmarg and its sponsoring club Rotary Club of Durbarmarg are the project partners for this project. Rotaract Club of Durbarmarg was chartered on August 12, 2010. Since its inception, the club has been actively involved in community service projects. Key members of both the Rotary and Rotaract Clubs helped during the installation of the computers in the school's library. A team consisting of Retractors and Rotarians is created to monitor the project and provide technical support to the school.



The implementation





A survey was conducted in the beginning to confirm the availability of a secure area to install the equipment as well as to assess the level of interest of the school staff. A meeting was subsequently arranged with the key members of the faculty to provide information on the project, how the project will be implemented, what will be the school's role and how will they work alongside our project partner to ensure the maximum benefit to the students.





Few days later, undeterred by the monsoon rain and the government shutdown, the eBlackboard team took five sets of computer terminals along with five sets of keyboard, mouse, speaker, and Raspberry Pi 3 to the school. The school and Rotary Club of Durbarmarg jointly funded the cost of a power backup system which consisted of a deep-cycle solar battery (850VA) and a charger/inverter. All parties appreciated this participatory approach for project implementation. A solar panel is sponsored by MP Mr. Gagan Thapa.





Frequent load shedding is a fact of life in Nepal which makes it very challenging to operate computer equipment beneficially. Installing a reliable power backup system goes a long way in providing the intended benefit of the computer system. Since an LCD monitor and a Raspberry Pi card uses only 35 Watts of power. The school can run a set of five computers continuously for 4-5 hours during school days to provide maximum impact to the learning environment.





With the assistance of the school staff and Rotary members, the computer lab was assembled in an hour, each Raspberry Pi card loaded with the interactive digital content based on national curriculum for grades 2-7 in the micro SD card. This allows students to access the digital modules for their respective grades without internet access and the need to run the Ethernet wires all over the room.





All five computer terminals were then turned on by switching on the power backup system. Since all five sets were fully tested prior to installation all of them started without any issue and showed the landing page of the digital curriculum. A quick run through was provided to the key staff members of the school on the correct way to power up and shutdown the terminals, what applications reside in the CPU, how to activate them as well as how to maintain the power backup system.



the implementation was a success



Pre-installation status



Brand new computer terminals, Raspberry Pi and accessories laid out on the table prior to installation



group photo post installation



A group photo of the key members of the project partner, beneficiary school and officers of MP Gagan Thapa's Office. History is in the making!



CPU location



The Raspberry Pi was placed at the back of the terminals using velcro to ensure sfety and security for tampering.



Ready - set - go!



Performing final check of all computer terminals prior to handover the the school principal




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