Surkhet, Nepal, June 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — An extraordinary Nepalese school has today been named a Top 10 finalist for the World’s Best School Prizes 2025. The five World’s Best School Prizes, founded by T4 Education in the wake of COVID in 2022 to share the best practices of schools that are changing lives in their classrooms and far beyond their walls, are the world’s most prestigious education prizes.
Kopila Valley School, an independent primary and secondary non-profit school in Birendranagar, Surkhet, Karnali, Nepal, which has integrated environmental sustainability as part of its educational model through its Green School Campus, a living laboratory providing high-quality academic and environmental education to more than 400 of the region’s most vulnerable children, has been named a Top 10 finalist for the World’s Best School Prize for Environmental Action. It is the first school in Nepal ever to become a finalist for the World’s Best School Prizes.
The winners of the five World’s Best School Prizes – for Community Collaboration, Environmental Action, Innovation, Overcoming Adversity, and Supporting Healthy Lives – will be chosen by an expert Judging Academy based on rigorous criteria. In addition, all 50 finalist schools across the five Prizes will also take part in a Public Vote, which opened today, to determine the winner of the Community Choice Award. All six winners will be announced in October.
The winners and finalists of these global schools prizes will be invited to the World Schools Summit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on November 15-16 where they will share their best practices and unique expertise and experience with policymakers and leading figures in global education.
Vikas Pota, Founder of T4 Education and the World’s Best School Prizes, said:
“In a world being turned upside down by AI, as technology reshapes the way we learn and renders jobs that have existed for centuries obsolete, amid growing challenges of climate change, conflict, poverty and populism, the world our young people are entering has never felt more precarious. And a good education, with humans at its heart, has never been more important.
“It is in schools like Kopila Valley School where we find the innovations and expertise that give us hope for a better future. Congratulations on becoming a finalist for the World’s Best School Prizes 2025. Leaders and schools around the world have so much to learn from this inspirational Nepalese institution.”
About the school:
Kopila Valley School, founded in collaboration with and supported by U.S. nonprofit The BlinkNow Foundation, is an independent primary and secondary non-profit school in Birendranagar, Surkhet, Karnali, Nepal, and has integrated environmental sustainability as part of its educational model through its Green School Campus, a living laboratory providing high-quality academic and environmental education to more than 400 of the region’s most vulnerable children. Situated in the Karnali region, where monsoons, landslides, floods, and deforestation threaten the community’s livelihoods, many marginalised families are also facing poverty, food insecurity and lack of access to basic healthcare.
With a keen understanding that education alone was not enough to change outcomes for local communities, the school built Nepal’s greenest campus in 2019. Here, children become a part of a living classroom where they don’t just learn about sustainability; they live it, practising waste management, recycling, regenerative agriculture, aquaponics, and water conservation. They become leaders who share their knowledge with families and the broader community, creating a ripple effect of environmental awareness and action. The full-service community school model provides daily nutritious meals sourced from its organic farm, basic healthcare, and mental health support to ensure that students are nourished, healthy, and ready to learn.
Building a sustainable school campus where student-led environmental initiatives are prioritised as part of its educational model has resulted in 100% of students graduating with climate literacy and sustainability, a 95% pass rate in the national 10th grade school exit exam, and 63% of students pursuing higher education. Over 150 students participate in weekly gardening classes, learning regenerative farming, soil conservation, and sustainable food production. The school partners with 22 local female farmers to strengthen food security in the region, and over 500 fresh, locally sourced meals are served to students and staff daily to address malnutrition. The school also places high value on gender equality, with more than 50% of the student body being female, and regular community workshops on menstrual health, gender-based violence prevention, and eco-friendly menstrual waste disposal practices are led by female students. A student-led zero-waste initiative has eliminated single-use plastics and achieved a 91% landfill diversion rate, and 100% of graduates have participated in a climate action initiative during or after their school years.
The success of the open source model has seen educators, school management teams, community leaders, and government officials visit the school to learn from and adopt practices in both theory and physical design, and the model has influenced the national curriculum development committee, which has integrated elements of the approach into its work. Other regional schools, inspired by the sustainability work being done, have also adopted green practices.
Through quality education underpinned by environmental action, the school is preparing the next generation of climate problem-solvers to lead Nepal toward a more sustainable future.
About The BlinkNow Foundation:
BlinkNow provides an education and a loving, caring home for at-risk children. The foundation also provides community outreach to reduce poverty, empower women, improve health, and encourage sustainability and social justice – it fulfills its mission by providing financial support and management oversight to the Kopila Valley Children’s Home and award-winning Kopila Valley School in Surkhet, Nepal. In addition to the home and school, Kopila Valley runs a Health & Wellness program, Women’s Center, home for at-risk girls, Futures Program for career readiness, and integrated Sustainability Program across all initiatives.
About T4 Education:
We believe every child, everywhere, deserves a good education. We are building the world’s largest community of teachers and schools to achieve this. Together. Our digital media platform provides opportunities for educators to network, collaborate, share good practices, and support each other’s efforts to improve learning and school culture. We work to amplify teachers’ voices because the world we want to see will only be built by listening to those at the heart of education. For more information about T4 education, please contact Salman Shaheen: salman@t4.education.
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