Kathmandu - This week matters covered diverse range of issues from opinion articles criticizing the Education policy stating it against parents and for the benefit of powerful lobbying groups. News about students siting in cold concrete floors was reported stating the need of furniture but failed the note the irrelevance of concrete floors for children at primary classes.  The government banned guess papers and guide at school level this week. It also lunched yoga in school curriculum. Local governments exemplary efforts were also covered this week. Phedikhola Rural municipality launched ‘one teacher, one laptop’ campaign. While Bhaktapur municipality graded educational loans to students from their municipality. -    A news reported of a retired teacher who donates pension fund to support day lunch in school he taught.

Figure A cartoon published with an option article stating that the present Education Policy was for powerful lobbyist groups like teachers union, government service workers union and private schools but against parents_Jan9_KD

-    Bhaktapur municipality has selected 91 students of the municipality for granting educational loan based on the Local Government Operation Act 2074. The loan was approved based on the ward chair person’s recommendations to students with good academic record and financial needs.

-    An opinion article discussed the obstacles of reading culture. The writer stated unless reading culture is established in school students, vast expenditure in teacher training is wasteful. Teacher, parents and society has important role to play here stated the writer.

The observation on relationship between books and students needs to be considered. At present context students are forced to be in front of books against their will prior to natural raise of interest to be able to read. This relation of discomfort rally takes a while to recover thus making it difficult from many students to want to read more beyond text books.

-    Yoga was reported to be included in school curriculum. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is all set to make yoga education compulsory for schoolchildren. “The ministry has completed designing courses on yoga for Grades IX, X, XI and XII,” reported joint secretary at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Through integrated approach certain topics about yoga will be included as part of the compulsory subjects such as English and Nepali. However the students can make choice between yoga, Ayurveda and natural medicine as optional subject at the school level. The course is integrated in the school curriculum to promote healthy lifestyle stated spokesperson at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. The courses will have credits similar to other subjects. These courses will be implemented from the upcoming academic session at schools.

-    One teacher, one laptop campaign in Syangja Syangja’s Phedikhola Rural Municipality has introduced one-teacher-one-laptop campaign with a view to connecting students with technology. “The campaign was implemented as we thought teaching-learning activities would be more effective via audio-visual medium,” Education Department Chief  of the municipality. 115 laptops were distributed in the first phase of the campaign. The RM was planning to provide a projector to each school.

-    An opinion article discussed the need to improve the test specifications to improve teaching and learning practices in schools. It stated that poorly devised tests are giving a false picture of the student’s true caliber, thus impacting in the pedagogy teachers take while engaged in classrooms.

'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 and Himal Weekly(Nepali) between Jan 8-14, 2020 (Poush23-29, 2076) - Editor.

Read this analysis in Nepali : स्थानीय तहका उदाहरणीय र नवीनतम प्रयासहरु

All analysis read by this link : Education This week