What does it look like when learning flows from one community to another?
This January, Tergar Schools brought together eleven teachers from remote Himalayan kindergartens for a month-long training at our Kathmandu campus. Teachers traveled from Philim, Krak, Prok and Samagaun, four Tergar Charity Nepal kindergartens in the Tsum-Nubri Rural Municipality of the Gorkha district. For four weeks, they dedicated 25 hours each week to learning, practicing, and reimagining what is possible in their classrooms.
The program was led by Kathmandu campus Principal Bikash Deshar, along with Buddhist Experience Curriculum (BEC) teacher Karma Youten, who guided mindfulness sessions, and learning leaders Samit Shakya for mathematics, and Nimmi Basnet for English. Together, they explored the essentials of early childhood education: teaching approaches that work for young learners, classroom management, positive discipline, lesson planning, arts and crafts, early math, language teaching, and first aid.
The days were full and varied, including workshops, classroom observations, teaching simulations, real practice with students, exposure visits to other schools, time for reading and reflection, group discussions, and mindfulness sessions. It was designed to be practical and deeply connected to what actually happens in a classroom.
What Teachers Took Home
Usha Gurung, Philim Kindergarten
For Usha, the training was about shifting her role from teaching to guiding.
“This training helped me better understand children’s natural curiosity and their individual learning pace,” she shared. “I learned how to create a calm, child-centered environment and guide children with patience and observation rather than direct instruction. It really strengthened my confidence as a teacher.”
Dechen Sangmo, Krak Kindergarten
Dechen spoke about the fresh energy she is excited to take back to her village classroom.
“It was a very good and useful experience for me. I learned many new things that will help my teaching, and I’m especially excited to try new activities that make my students more active and interested in their daily lessons.”
Following the Child’s Lead
A big theme of this training was trusting children’s natural development instead of pushing learning onto them. The teachers discovered how to:
- Encourage independence – by letting children choose their work and take responsibility for it
- Build real concentration – by using hands-on materials that invite kids to focus and discover on their own
- Support social growth – by creating spaces where children naturally learn cooperation, kindness, and leadership from each other
More Than Just Training
At its heart, this training was about more than lesson plans or techniques. It was about building confidence, nurturing awareness, and strengthening a shared vision for joyful, child-centered education. Just as importantly, it helped deepen the connections across the Tergar Mandala, bringing teachers from different regions together to learn from one another, share experiences, and grow as one learning family grounded in shared values.
