Positive Deal

THE private schools that were shut down for almost two weeks have been reopened. The accord reached between the government and the teachers' forum has marked a fresh beginning to tackle impending issues in the education sector. The government has pledged to look into demands raised by the teachers and it is committed to take initiatives to resolve them within a month. As taken up by the striking teachers, private schools have several problems embedded within them. Though the education act embodies provisions governing operation of private schools, the education institutions have not fully complied with them. Several provisions in the education act are prescribed for running the private schools. . Conditions and criterion have been laid down to define the basis with which private schools could be established and operated.

The schools should have adequate physical facilities and children friendly environment. A set of qualified human resource should be employed in such schools. They should be remunerated according to law. However, these provisions have not been followed in letter and spirit. In the majority of cases, underqualified teachers have been employed in private schools and they are grossly underpaid. Moreover, teachers are not given written undertaking of their employment and the security of their job has not been guaranteed. It should be pointed out that the poor condition of the private schools is not because of the absence of the provisions in the relevant law but because of the lacklustre implementation. The district education office is responsible to oversee implementation of the legal provisions and ensure that violations of legal norms was fully checked.As the office has the wider regulatory power to monitor performance of the schools, any pitfall in the observance of law should be attributed to the weak monitoring and supervisory system in the line agency concerned. Since weak performance of the government office can be strengthened and improved through necessary inputs, teachers should not resort to any threatening tactics to pile pressure upon the government. Dialogues and collective bargaining should be adopted as the means to tackle problems as strikes not only disturbs academic cycle but also brings ruin to the future of the children.

Source: The Rising Nepal, May 29, 2007

Educational Reform Plan : Opportunity And Challenge

Devi Prasad Bhattarai

The Ministry of Education and Sport (MOES) has introduced a Three-year Interim Education Policy in the school system in light of the changing landscape in national and global education. The policy attempts to bring changes in the school education system to meet the recent policy gap after Jana Andolan II. The policy is crucial because of its response to the existing problems in education, in particular, and the transitional period the nation is undergoing, in general.Since the establishment of democracy in 1990, with the soar in people's aspirations, the education system has been criticised for its standard, said to be poorer in comparison to that of other countries, especially the SAARC countries. Indeed, the new policy tries to address the fundamental issues of education. But implementing it may be a challenging endeavour.

Future outline

The policy has attempted to revisit various aspects of school education. It has introduced some significant changes for pursuing the educational plan for the next three years as an interim and transitional plan. The policy has not only addressed the present needs of the country but also sketched the future outline of the education system. The policy has been prepared to respond to a sustainable and progressive education system commensurate to a democratic society. For this, it has prepared a long-term strategic vision, which is a continuation of the vision of the 10th Plan in education. Under this long-term vision, it will continue with the policy of devolving public schools to the community. Furthermore, it has sought an improvement in the existing school structure to make the system more relevant with the prevailing school systems of the world.According to the proposed structure, basic and primary education encompasses eight years (1-8) and secondary education four years (9-12). Therefore, total schooling will be of 12 years. For the effective implementation of the programmes, the proposed interim plan has introduced a strategy on curriculum development, teacher training, examination and quality improvement. The policy has introduced a system that will allow students to shift from non-formal, technical and vocational education to appropriate grades in the formal education system and vice-versa.

Overall, the major strategies concern: decentralisation of education, inclusion of ethnic and disadvantaged groups, integrated implementation management, capacity building programme, application of information technology, improvement in school investment and grant system, curriculum development and implementation process, and student evaluation and validation. To execute these strategies, the draft has mentioned various programmes and schedules. These programmes are to be implemented by focusing on the ongoing and special programmes. They include Literacy and Income Based Programmes, Alternative School Education (Distance and Open Learning), Pre- Primary Education/ Early Childhood Education, Basic Education, Secondary Education, Vocational Training and Technical Education, Higher Education, Quality Development in Education, Sports Development Programme, Youth Development and Scouting Programme, Physical Construction and Re-Construction Programme, And Educational Management. Depending upon the distribution and volume of these programmes, it has allocated estimated expenditures for their implementation for each of the years.

On the downside, the policy is less aware of the possible hindrances to implementation. The striking challenge is the possibility of a stern lack of professional expertise in curriculum designing, materials development, and monitoring and evaluation at the local level as the policy proposes handing over part of these responsibilities to the local level. Effective implementation of the policy will largely depend on the technical, administrative and academic competency of the local people. Therefore, the problem of capacity building at the community and school levels could lead to strategic failure in action. As the proposed structure in education demands improved and upgraded physical infrastructure, the proposed policy in this regard is insufficient. For example, a primary school that provides education up to Grade 5 needs to improve its physical and human resource to cater to an 8-year primary education. On the other hand, managing education widely in the mother tongue is praiseworthy, but its success largely depends on effective teacher education programmes based on the native languages. The policy is not clear about curriculum development in the native languages.The programme of providing scholarships to all the disadvantaged groups is noteworthy, but simply providing them to the communities may not always attract them towards schooling unless the parents of the children can change mentally. For example, scholarships are misused by the parents, and the money is used for purposes other than education.

In higher education, the policy has given continuity to phasing out the intermediate level in Tribhuvan University. The policy is not new because such efforts were made in the past. Unless initiatives are taken to effectively phase out the intermediate level from the university, it will only hamper the educational programmes to be implemented for improving higher education. Absence of a fixed policy in higher education in the past has resulted in the dual system in education at present - higher secondary education and the intermediate level of TU serve the same purpose. On the other hand, developing an umbrella act for universities is praiseworthy, but the policy of providing autonomy to the campuses will be a challenging task due to the extreme politics that take place in the campuses. So a strong commitment and respect by the political parties and their sister organisations are desirable at the campus level. In higher education, the government has been providing budget for the teacher's salary and not sufficiently funding research and professional development so important to sustain higher education and enhance quality education.

Impediments

It is, thus, desirable to analyse and envisage the possible challenges and impediments to implementing the policy. Donor nations and agencies should be asked to assist in the country's transformation in education. The policy should not be rigid so that changes can be brought from time to time to address any lapses. Similarly, there must be strong commitment to policy implementation on the part of the government. For this, there must be motivation among the stakeholders, continuous monitoring, supervision and evaluation in running the programme. Based on the feedback, there must be effort to improve the policy and programmes. Should this happen, the policy will be a watershed in the history of education.

Source: The Rising Nepal, May 18, 2007

An Important Step

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has named the Vice-chancellors of various universities - an important breakthrough in filling the long persisting gap that was shackling the performance of the higher seats of learning. The appointment of the officials to the universities has ended a row in the academic sector, and the political haggling that was behind it has come to a close, too. It needs no reiterating that the political parties tried their best to maintain their upper hand and decisive say in these appointments, which is said to be the cause behind the delays in taking the decision. In the same vein, it can be said that the absence of consensus and a common position of the key political parties was central in causing procrastination to the whole process. When some attempts were made to take a decision on key appointments in the past, vehement opposition was raised by the Maoists, in particular, that stopped the parties from taking the process forward.

Since the Maoists had not joined the government then, objection raised from their part demanding postponement of the appointments can be justified. But following the paricipation of the Maoists in the government ,the delays in naming appropriate persons to the top positions of the universities on whatever pretext should not be vindicated. The new appointees to the universities, whose names were announced Monday, should assume the mantle with a sense of responsibility and dedication. The universities are host to a range of problems that include the interference of partisan politics in dictating the affairs of the higher seat of learning. The student unions are radicalised, and admission tests have turned a mockery because of the interferences coming from the student unions to take in more students than the institutions can accommodate. Similarly, teachers are also alleged to not doing their bit to safeguard the sanctity of the institution of learning. After long negotiations, the key posts in the universities have been filled. There are other responsible higher level positions for which decision need to be taken soon. Strong academic dynamics need to be created in the ailing universities to breathe new life in the moribund educational sector.

Source: The Rising Nepal, May 2, 2007