Waste of resources
The
Himalayan Times
8 December
2016
Waste of resources
Among
others, education has been one of the priority sectors of the government of
Nepal. Every year, educationalists argue about the amount of budget allocated
by the government in this sector. Several educational reform programs were tried
investing billions of rupees received from bilateral or multilateral
international funding agencies. One of the most ambitious programs is the
School Sector Development Plan (SSDP) with an investment of one trillion of
rupees “School sector development” (THT, 6 Dec. Page 8). Its main is to make
the education from one to eight grades completely free and compulsory.
Strengthening access to education of all the school going children thus
bridging the dropout rate to zero is one of the ambitious plan of SSDP.
However,
there has not been any significant and satisfactory progress in this effort.
The main reason behind that seemed to be lack of political commitment,
appropriate and reliable plan. Also, lack of proper supervision and weak
monitoring system prevalent in the government machinery is another drawback in
effectively implementing SSDP. The transformation of four-tier structure of
school education into two-tiers comprising the basic level from grade one to
eight and the secondary level from grade nine to twelve is another reform
approach proposed in the SSDP. It had created hue and cry among both the
government and private secondary schools. It took some time to implement. The
government was not able to timely amend the bill due to political consensus.
Dissolution of Higher Secondary School Board of Examination and bringing it
under a National Examination Board has been a long process for the government.
Rai Biren Bangdel
Maharajgunj
