The Music Started Anyway
On the morning of August 6, before the First Trimester Learning Exhibition could officially begin, the students of Tergar Schools Kathmandu had to do something that doesn’t come easily to any group of children: wait.
So Learning Leader Karma Shendon encouraged the students to play some music. Thapse joined in on flute, Dorje picked up his guitar, and one by one, the rest of the students turned toward the music. Within minutes, the whole gathering had found its way into song together, and the wait no longer felt like waiting.
Soon after, the guests arrived: students and the principal from Holy Vision School, alongside alumni from Teach for Nepal. Ningar and Tashi, both from Class 6, took the microphone as hosts for the morning.
The program opened with a chant and prayer, followed by a performance from the Class 1 students and a musical piece. Then came something new this year: a Class 4 skit on basic goodness, built around a sun performance the students had been developing. Thapse closed the program with a final song before everyone made their way toward the exhibition itself.
A Different Kind of Exhibition
Principal Bikash Deshar said this year’s exhibition was designed differently from those before it. While past exhibitions had centered on STEAM projects, this one turned toward the Tergar Schools Model of Learning itself, inviting guests not simply to observe it, but to experience it firsthand.
That spirit of participation showed up in small, thoughtful ways. Guests were invited to pick a meditation card to take home with them, a small practice to carry back into their own lives. By the end of the day, every single card was gone.
One of the visiting guests, Jolan Maharjan, principal of Holy Vision Secondary School, saw that spirit firsthand.
“I could see how students have been learning, not only their academics, but they are going beyond their books and beyond their classrooms. That is very inspiring.”
What the Students Carried With Them
After the exhibition, the teachers sat down together to reflect on what they had witnessed. A few moments from that conversation stayed with us.
One student counted the guests he had presented to that day: sixty, by his own tally.
Teachers also noticed something quieter happening throughout the day. When a classmate was absent, other students simply stepped in, presenting projects that weren’t their own without being asked. Confidence and teamwork, it seemed, were growing side by side.
For Class 1, this was their very first exhibition. They started off nervous, but the day went well for them.
Learning leader Miss Nimmi noted that one project, an art installation paired with a movie review, included a contribution from every student. Whatever each of them was good at, whether drawing, writing, or building, had a place in the final piece. Everyone took part and no contribution was treated as less important than another.
Miss Nimmi offered a reflection that felt like it belonged to more than just August 6. During the rehearsal the day before, she watched the students present to their peers before any guests had arrived and found herself wondering aloud: why wait for an exhibition to see this kind of teaching happen? Why not build more chances for students to explain their learning to one another throughout the year?
It’s a question worth sitting with.
Perhaps the truest measure of a learning exhibition isn’t what guests see when they walk through the room. It’s what students discover about themselves in the act of showing someone else what they have learned.
