Kathmandu - This week news reports of innovative approaches by different municipalities got covered in the media. Some municipality provided computers and declared English as a compulsory class for public schools. Some public school distributed 2 sets of books to easy the physical and mental burden for its students. Articles about University Official appointment procedure continued to get covered in the media this week as well. After continuous pressure from medical students for more than two weeks, this week the private medical institutions have agreed to return the additional fees raised from students. The media also reported this week that the government has been working to establish Tourism and Mountaineering Studies Academy, while Manmohan Technical University Bill got passed from Province 1 assembly.
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Abbreviations: MOEST- Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, TUSC-TU Service Commission, KD-Kantipur Daily, THT- The Himalayan Times, , SEE- Secondary Education Examination
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- This week it was reported that the Chairman of BhoteKoshi Rural municipality, Sindhuli, supported teachers and sports materials to 29 schools from his own payroll. He has previously rejected vehicular facility. He has been distribution learning materials under the campaign, "People's representative for Educational Improvement". He has also taken responsibility to sponsor education of three children of a popular sightless local singer. Under 'Bhotekoshi model Organization's concept a campaign and strategy has been formed. The chairperson of the municipality along with ward chairperson and members of the municipality collectively have been going in schools for observations and planning accordingly.
- The sharing of positions in higher education institution among political parties has seen public opposition from different fronts in street and in the media stated an opinion article. A competent coordinator is of upmost importance to lead the higher education institutions into right direction. Learning from personal experience about practices of American Universities , the writer suggest the selection process to choose personals for important positions in University should rather be a gradual process including a yearlong probation period of the personal selected by the Board of Trustee. Only after the probation period, if the Board finds the personal's performance satisfactory a permanent position should be approved. Such selection practice could be implemented in Nepal as well, instead of political appointment, as this will only bring in personal loyal to the party and not to the welfare of the institution itself concluded the writer.
Picture : Student learning Computer in a public school atHaldibari Rural Municipality. The municipalitiy has distributed computers to all school to make computers a compulsory subject in all public school._ Sept 18_KD
- Haldibari Rural Municipalilty of Jhapa, has been reported to have made English and computer classescompulsorysubject for all community schools in its region. This has raised interest in public schools in the municipality stated the news. In all 17 public schools, the municipality has distributed 260 computers, with 1 to 3 computers in primary, 10 to 20 in lower secondary and 30 in secondary schools. All schools are provided with a printer and photo copy machine, projector, internet facility as well. The chair of the rural municipality stated the education was the first priority of the municipality. He stated that 20 million rupees was mobilized by requesting special fund from the government. The municipality has also provided 11 computer teachers in contract to be mobilized in the municipality. It reports students from private institutions are rapidly getting admitted to public schools now. All public schools have been provided an additional English teacher in contract under the 'English improvement program'. The mayor has been reported stating municipalities shouldn’t depend on the central government for everything. It was reported that the municipality had the second lowest budget in the district but allocated 42 million for education. The municipality has also allocated 7 sports teacher and 3 yoga teachers to circulate among all public schools of the region. The municipality has also made 11 and 12 strictly free by providing Rs.500 per student per month to schools.
The diversity in the innovative approaches taken by local governments covered this week shows the strength of federalism. These different approaches can be considered as an rich practical action research in the long run, as municipalities take different approaches to identify the results of such approaches. Other municipalities are likely to follow such experimental efforts as efficiency of the investment gets proved or failed in relatively smaller scale, then it would have if done in a national scale. A well-documented review of these approaches can help strategize policies for other local governments and at provincial and federal level as well.
- Chitwan Medical College Administration has agreed to return the additional fees raised from the students, ending the month long protest, while the protest continues in Gandaki Medical College as the students demands are yet to be addressed. The agreement made in presence of the college management, students, parents in District Administration office, states the college will return all the additional fees of bachelors level by 30 working days. The students have raised question to the intent of the government for not being responsive to their legitimate demands for such a long period through a press release previously. It had questioned the role of employees of TU,KU, and Institution of Medicine. They also ask for the region for the silence of the Prime Minister, and Finance Minister about such a large scale of corruption, stating whether they were scared of the Mafiya(referring to private college institutions) or teamed with them.
- A school in Kwholasothar Rural Municipality, Lamjung has provided additional set of books for all students from 1 to 10. So, each has two set of books for each subject one in school and one in home. The intention was to ease students travel between home and school at a hilly terrain. The ward chair had praised this unique innovative approach of the school to reduce physical and mental stress for students.
- It was reported this week that writ petition has been filed against Ministry of Education, Science and technology, Department of education and Teachers Service Commission at Supreme Court seeking stay order of examination schedule published by TSCfor obtaining permanent teacher license.The petitioners said though the notice seemed to have given them an opportunity for obtaining permanent teaching license, it had infringed on their rights to competition.The examination notice stated that the exam was only for those who had completed Master’s Degree in any subjects like Nepali, Sociology, Science, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mathematics, English, Accountancy, Agriculture and Animal Science, by obtaining at least aggregate marks of 300 or had an equivalent degree, and were teaching at Secondary level and had acquired temporary teaching licenses. The petitioners also reported that the teachers of Economics were told to sit for the examination of Social Studies.
'Education this Week' is a joint effort put to analyze the press coverage of education in Nepal’s selected print media published in Kathmandu. The main aim of this effort is to identify and explain major education issues picked up by the media and give back and foreground of the news.This, we believe, will help policy makers and other responsible people to keep abreast with ongoing concerns and discussions on and around education. EduKhabar, in collaboration with the Center for Educational Policies and Practices (CEPP) , has produced this analysis based on the news printed in Kantipur (Nepali) and The Himalayan Times (English), Dailies andHimal Weekly(Nepali) betweenSept 18-24, 2019 (Asoj 1-7, 2076)- Editor.
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