History
Happy House Foundation (HHF), a Swiss not for profit foundation, has been working with Happy House Nepal (HHN), a Nepalese NGO working in education and child welfare, to pursue its goals in Nepal, since 1996. Happy House supported children had been admitted in private and boarding schools of Kathmandu and the organization spent a substantial amount of money to educate the children. However, the result was unsatisfactory.
Lack of sufficiently trained sensitive professionals, emphasis on theory and standardized exams, poor delivery of instructions and ill practices were the main reasons which prompted Happy House Foundation to initiate the establishment of a school that was significantly different. Happy House Foundation was motivated by its conviction that a holistic approach to education that focuses on the child as the center for learning would be a pioneering project and would prove of value to children across diverse communities, in Nepal.
Baron Guy Ullens and Mrs. Myrium Ullens, the founders of Happy House Foundation, provided the initital capital to establish a school. Mr. Som Paneru, president of Ullens Education Foundation Nepal committed to the project by
- Selecting the leader for the school. Mr. Medin Lamichhane and sending him to the Bank Street Graduate School of Education in New York in preparation for developing a center for excellence in learning and,
- Scouting for location, and developing the school and its campus to match with the standards of a progressive learning environment.
At the height of the Maoist insurgency in May 2004, upon return from his graduate study at Bank Street, Mr. Medin Lamicchane, started reviewing the national curriculum and initiated a short term pilot project to train school teachers to instruct the Nepalese Curriculum through the Bank Street approach to education. The training was organized for dual purposes: to develop skills of novice teachers and to see the implementation of progressive education in a Nepalese context.
Despite the political upheaval, in December 2005, 20 teachers were hired and scheduled for intensive paid training. In January 2006, ‘Ullens Education Foundation’ was legally registered with Mr. Som Paneru as the president and the Foundation was granted Nepal government’s authorization. In addition to this, Ullens Education Foundation marked a milestone by joining Bank Street in a partnership to develop Ullens School as a Laboratory School that applies Bank Street approach to quality education.
The Ullens School opened its doors to educators and learners in May 2006, with Mr. Medin Lamichhane as the principal.