Since the federal structure of political governance is still taking shape by backing it up with necessary legislation, it has already created an uproar on the pending bill of education. The pending proposed bill on school education has invited criticism from all quarters. The government had introduced this bill on September 13, 2023. The bill, which was eight years in the making, is still taking shape leaving school education in both institutional and community schools as unruly horses bolting in all directions thereby risking the lives and injuring the future of millions of citizens. This bill claims to address a myriad of issues but to the greatest of our dismay seems to offer no solutions. It has further complicated the problems right from the role of private schools to the appointment of teachers.
The bill encourages the transformation of about 8,000 private schools into Guthi (a non-profit trust). Those who had already been in the business of education as a capitalist or shareholders are feeling jittery. There are the owners who act as a principal and directors of the private school have raised their flags against the pending bill. Their paychecks disproportionately weigh higher than the private school teachers who are paid even less than the community school teachers. Therefore, the pending bill on education hides as well as exposes the murky business of private school business. This shift aims, as it is being claimed in the new bill on education, to make education more accessible to the general people and discourage a profit-making spree. The government will no longer allow the establishment of new private schools operating under company law for the people with fat pockets but these profiteers have nothing to do with the profession of education. Well, this will remain a utopia unless a concrete plan for the enhancement of the educational environment of the existing community and institutional schools is worked upon. It is a well-known fact that owners of the private boarding schools and teachers of the community schools are hands in glove with all shades of political parties - both ruling and opposition parties.
The pending bill suffers a serious setback when it empowers the municipalities and municipal corporations to set up public (community) schools, manage teachers, and oversee operations of all the schools both private (institutional) and public (community). Both the federal and provincial governments have been kept away from it, though both governments have been empowered by the Constitution of Nepal through Schedule 9 (item number 2). Teachers are not willing to be controlled by the local governments as there is no job security in private schools and their salaries are mostly paid through negotiations. Teachers of private schools doubt the capacity of the local government to safeguard their interests against the management committee of a school.
One of the serious objections raised against this bill is regarding local-level exams. The Government of Nepal has already diluted the rigors of exams by allowing the schools to award marks on their own in internal promotion except for Grade Eight and Grade 10. For Grade 8, 50 marks are given by the school, and the remaining 50 marks are tested through a written exam conducted in the school itself. For Grade 10, 25 marks are given by the school, and the rest 75 marks are awarded through a written Secondary Education Examination SEE test. SEE is the final examination of Grade Ten conducted by the National Examination Board (NEB). The Basic Education Examination (BEE) is conducted at the District Level, especially in Grade 8. The pending bill proposes that exams for Grade 8 and Grade 12 will be conducted by the municipalities at the local level. Existing centralized examination systems will be abolished. The most revolutionary step of the bill comes in the form of doing away with the Grade 10 Board Exam. The respective schools all over the country shall take the promotion exam on their own to push the students in Grade 11. It is again allowing money, favoritism, nepotism, and corruption through the backdoor giving the school management a free hand to disrupt the quality of education completely and convert it into a certificate-giving institution without any accountability ensured from the above. What a shame it is, all happening in the name of overhauling the perceived archaic system of education! Can water be further diluted to be more water? This is what this pending bill is trying to do diluting school education in a way that destroys the very nature of school education. School education has become a football that every political party, when comes to power, loves to kick it hard to post a goal as per its understanding.
Article 31 (5) of the Constitution of Nepal says that every Nepali community residing in Nepal shall have the right to get an education in its own mother tongue and, for that purpose, to open and operate schools and educational institutes, in accordance with law. There are seven provinces under the newly adopted federal structure. Each province has at least 3-4 recognized ethnic languages that also include Hindi, Awadhi, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Newari, and Limbu among others. Nepal Radio already broadcasts in these languages apart from other indigenous languages. Even Gorkhapatra publishes a page in a week giving space to all the recognized languages of Nepal. A moot question here is: Will local municipalities in Madhesh Pradesh allow the students to write exams in their mother tongues and even pass the public service exam? Many schools in Kathmandu under the supervision of KMC (Kathmandu Metropolitan City) have started teaching either Newari or Tamang. Can the students write their exams in Newari or Tamang throughout their life? What if, students want to write their college and university exams too in their mother tongue because they have completed the school in the same language? The Government of Nepal must find an intelligent way to implement all the constitutional provisions relating to education. If needed, a new amendment to streamline the school education must be introduced.
There are not less than 36,032 schools in Nepal. Out of the total schools, 75.9 percent are community schools, 20.5 percent are institutional schools, and 3.6 percent are traditional and religious schools. In the absence of a proper understanding of the law, all these schools will bolt like unruly horses in all directions disrupting all the established norms of education. Only the federal government can bridle these horses through laws that are guided by the principle of ‘checks and balances’.
(Binod Kumar Pathak is an editor, educator and academician)
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