NFRJ kicks off Inclusive Education Nepal

Kathmandu, February 2025 — The Nepal Forum for Restorative Justice (NFRJ) has officially launched Inclusive Education Nepal (IEN), a new initiative to weave inclusive education into Nepal’s school systems, viewing every classroom as a space for justice, care, and belonging.

Why NFRJ is taking this bold step:

• Restorative justice isn’t just about courts—it begins in classrooms. NFRJ has long advocated that education systems relying on punishment miss the chance to teach empathy and healing. By focusing on restorative pedagogy, they aim to replace disciplinary punishment with dialogue, care, and positive citizenship.
• The “Pedagogy of Care” framework. Working in collaboration with local wards, including Ward 5 of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, NFRJ has piloted violence-free, care-driven learning environments—where students and caregivers co‑design classroom norms. Similar pilots included workshops for teachers on restorative schools.
• Addressing huge gaps in inclusive accessibility. Despite Nepal’s Inclusive Education Policy (2017) and legal rights under the 2015 constitution, tens of thousands of children—especially with disabilities—remain excluded due to inadequate infrastructure, materials, trained teachers, stigma, and fragmented policy implementation.
• Legal openings and systemic promise. Nepal’s Act Relating to Children (2018) explicitly includes restorative justice within juvenile justice procedures—yet implementation has lagged. NFRJ sees inclusive classrooms as a logical extension: restorative learning from early ages supports the same values of empowerment, accountability, and reintegration.

What’s next:

• Training teachers in restorative and inclusive methods across schools—public and private—to cultivate trust, empathy, and dignity-based discipline.
• Partnering with local governments to create resource‑supported, accessible classrooms for learners of all abilities.
• Engaging communities (parents, caregivers, activists) to dismantle stigma and shift mindset around disability, difference, and behaviour.
• Tracking impact through context-specific metrics (e.g. dropouts, exclusions, incidents of violence, participation). If successful, NFRJ hopes to scale this approach nationwide.

NFRJ’s inclusive education initiative reimagines justice not as punishment, but as belonging. By embedding restorative principles into schools, they aim to transform adversity into empathy, exclusion into empowerment—and justice into daily practice for every child in Nepal, regardless of ability.

Find more about Inclusive Education Nepal here: https://inclusiveeducationnepal.org/