All teachers, students, parents, government and all people related to and interested in education! I am Khadananda Sapkota. I am a retired teacher from 42 years of teaching service. I have dedicated my entire life to the education sector and have experienced many bitter and sweet experiences.
Today I felt like saying something about the current situation and inconsistencies in Nepal’s education policy and presenting ways to improve it. I would like to give some suggestions based on my expertise and experience in the education sector. I also request you to study and give me your suggestions.
Table of Contents
Education for all is the need of the day. The state has spent billions of rupees in the education sector, but the results are not satisfactory. About 15-20 years ago, schools were opened in the neighborhoods on the initiative of the people of the community, realizing the need for schools. Now there is no need to open new schools, rather, the schools that were established are being closed down due to lack of students.
In the absence of capacity building and strengthening of community schools, schools run by the private sector have made good progress. Parents are in a financial crisis due to the high fees charged by private schools. The people in the decision-making levels of the state own private schools. In such a situation, how can the educational quality of community schools be improved?
A situation has arisen where children of the rich have to be admitted to private schools and children of the poor have to be admitted to community schools. Private schools have produced one type of citizen, while government schools have produced another type. This has further widened the gap between the rich and the poor.
Education has become so expensive that even if a parent works hard to educate their children, they have to bear the burden of debt throughout their lives. Two decades ago, when we ourselves were studying in college, we used to earn Rs. It used to be possible to study for a bachelor’s degree at 40/50, now it is not possible to educate our children even if we pay 40/50 thousand per month.
Despite the desire to educate our children in higher education and despite the ability of the child to study, we are forced to drop out of school and college due to inability to pay the high fees. If this situation continues and the state does not take serious steps to improve the educational quality of community schools, parents may even commit suicide because they are unable to educate their children. We have started hearing such incidents from time to time.
The bitter reality that teachers teaching in community schools are criticized more for the decline in the quality of education is clearly visible. But it is unfair to blame teachers alone. Teachers are not the only ones responsible for the decline in the quality of education in community schools; the state’s education policy seems to be the biggest culprit.
If the education policy is correct and the control and monitoring are correct, no one else can be blamed. From time to time, with the political changes in the country, several commissions were formed to make timely changes and amendments to the education policy. Those commissions also submitted reports with necessary opinions and suggestions for the reform of the education sector.
But there is no accounting of how many of those reports were implemented, how many were not implemented, and how many were thrown in the trash can – because monkeys got into the chair to take action. The report of the Education Commission, formed recently, was not made public. Why and under whose influence did the government not want to make that report public?
What was in it? That mystery! That secret may be revealed one day, but what can be inferred from this is that the current government is also not sensitive to radical changes in the education sector.
If we look at the state of education across the country, the condition of most community schools has become difficult and discouraging, while some schools have merged with nearby schools due to a lack of student numbers. Some community schools have become hotbeds of corruption. Why has the condition of community schools not improved despite the state pouring so much money into the education sector?
Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that the state’s education policy is to blame for this. Therefore, it is imperative for the state to think seriously about strengthening and improving community education. There are some serious issues that the state must address; otherwise, Nepal‘s education is sure to suffer a serious blow.
Education Policy to make the teaching profession attractive
If you ask a child, “What do you want to become after studying?”, he will answer that he will become either a doctor or an engineer. He never talks about becoming a teacher. Because the teaching profession has not yet become as attractive as it used to be and is in other countries. Therefore, the state should adopt a policy to make the teaching profession more attractive than other professions. It seems that currently, the human resources coming to the teaching profession come only after the possibilities of other fields are exhausted.
First, they try to enter other professions as much as possible. If a person working as a secondary school teacher passes the civil service exam, he leave the teaching profession and goes there. The only reason for this is that the teaching profession is not attractive. The compulsion to work in the same category for a long time and wait for 4/4 months to get his due salary should end. It is very necessary to create a policy where each teacher gets a salary every month and is automatically promoted to another category when they complete their grade.
To attract talented students to enter this field, a strategy should be made to attract them by maintaining a salary that is 20 to 25 percent higher than that of the workforce working in other professions. A separate hospital should be built for teachers for medical treatment. A policy should be formulated to fill the positions required by the state, local levels, and other educational bodies with teachers.
A special category of teachers should also be established. The state should make arrangements to provide free education to the children of teachers up to higher education. Only then will the teaching profession be transformed into an attractive profession. Only then will the public’s attraction to this profession increase.
Making the education sector free from political interference
The education sector has not been able to be free from political interference. The Education Act and Regulations have not given any teacher any exemption from politics. But in practice, teachers do not seem to be able to stay away from politics. Every teacher’s professional organization is affiliated with some party or the other. Some teachers are even openly working in the executive committee of a political party.
The state should adopt a policy of establishing a single union by abolishing the professional organizations of teachers affiliated with parties and as sister organizations of parties. In addition, legal provisions should be made to immediately remove any teacher from service if he is found to be involved in political activities or has joined the membership of a party. If this is not done, political parties like monkeys will always carry the teachers with a bag. Teachers of the intellectual class will continue to become servants of monkeys, and not only the education sector but also the country will continue to be unfortunate.
Improving the process of forming the school management committee
The school management committee plays an important role in making the management aspect of the school strong and efficient. The process of forming the school management committee as provided in the existing law and the management committee formed through that process are an obstacle to school development, so it is necessary to revise and amend them. The officials representing the management committee should not be influenced by any party and should work in the interest of the school with a clean and pure heart. Dirty political activities should not be carried out while being in the management committee.
Due to the deteriorating educational conditions in community schools across the country, most parents are in pain due to the fear of ruining their children’s future if they enroll in community schools and the obligation to pay high fees if they enroll in private schools. Low-income parents are in trouble because the educational conditions of community schools have not improved.
But now, it is common to enter schools as members of the school management committee with the thought and mentality that they can eat together with the principal. There are many examples of people with such tendencies who have tarnished the educational environment of the school.
Therefore, to prevent this, it seems necessary to eliminate the current election process and create a policy to allow qualified and capable people with positive thinking and mindset to transform the school to enter as members of the school management committee through nomination. It is necessary for the intellectual class to take special interest in this and move forward. The group of monkey-like fools who are currently running the government never wants to improve and do not do it.
Empowered and competent principal
The principal is the person at the center of school development and reform. Only competent and competent leadership can guide the school in the right direction or take it to its destination. Therefore, the state should repeal the existing legal system related to the appointment of principals and formulate a new policy for managing competent and qualified principals. For this, a separate post should be created for the principal. The principal should be empowered.
Additional allowances should be arranged for him. A system should be developed to transfer the principal to another school every 5 years so that he remains in the same post. The current tradition of working in the same school until he retires once he becomes a principal should be ended. A legal system should be created so that if the state fails to do its job properly or acts against the interests of the school, he can be removed from the post immediately. In this way, a policy should be made mandatory to create enthusiasm for good work and discourage doing wrong.
Improvement in the curriculum
In the current situation, where the development of information and technology has taken a leap forward not only in education but also in every field, along with the changing world order, it is necessary to revise and modify the curriculum in line with the times. Failure to revise and modify the curriculum for a long time has created obstacles in producing human resources that can compete in the international market.
Due to the failure to revise and modify the curriculum in accordance with the needs of the country, along with the change in the political system, the number of educationally unemployed is clearly increasing day by day. There is a need to emphasize creating a curriculum that is practical and useful for life rather than a theoretical curriculum. Instead of the traditional assessment of a student throughout the year by taking a paper test in a three-hour period, a policy should be adopted to create a curriculum that is evaluated through project work.
The future should not be ruined by forcibly imposing subjects that are not interesting to children and creating a situation where they are forced to drop out of school midway, but rather a policy should be adopted to create a curriculum in such a way that children can study subjects that are interesting to them from the initial grades. Only then can we hope for improvement.
Special periodic teacher transfer policy
There is no provision in the existing law for transfer of teachers except if they wish to do so. Working in the same school has already killed their enthusiasm and energy. Staying in the same school for a long time does not benefit the community or the principal. Therefore, a policy of transferring teachers from one school to another should be adopted without prejudice and without any disadvantage for at least 3 years. If this is done, the education sector will improve.
Compulsory admission of children of government employees to community schools
It is a bitter reality that teachers working in government schools teach their children in private schools. Here it is seen that the teacher does not trust himself. When a teacher teaches his children in the same school that he himself teaches, he becomes more responsible for the school and shows initiative in school improvement. A mandatory legal provision should be made to admit not only teachers but also the children of all civil servants receiving government salaries to government schools. By adopting such a policy, a positive attitude towards community schools will develop among teachers and employees of regulatory bodies and the educational quality of community schools, which have deteriorated, will improve.
Conlusion
Due to the deteriorating educational situation, most parents are in pain due to the fear of ruining their future if they enroll their children in community schools and the obligation to pay high fees if they enroll them in private schools. As the educational situation of community schools cannot be improved, common parents with low incomes are in trouble.
To make education accessible to the general public, to provide relief to low-income parents, and to build a bright future for their children, there is no alternative but to move forward by improving community schools. Let all parties think seriously for once, let us try from our own place. Let us move forward with a determination to improve community schools and make them well-equipped and prosperous. Let us not rely on the monkeys who run the government, this will benefit all of us.
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