KATHMANDU -  Fifteen rupees provided by the government for mid-day meals in schools is not adequate, so schools are compelled to serve junk food for mid-day meals, a report came on Onlinekhabar news portal. There is no matching between the purpose of the midday meal and the behavior of the government, argued the report. The government has arranged midday meals for children from pre-school to (Early Child Development and Education - ECDE) to Class 5. Even if the aim is to provide 'nutritious food' to school going children in midday meal, the amount given by the government is not adequate to provide nutritious food, the report mentioned. From this financial year, grant is raised Rs 20 per student in the Himalayan region while it remains Rs 15 elsewhere. It was stated in the reporting that this amount provided by the government is not adequate to buy even an egg.

Giving free midday meals in our context comes from populist and shallow reasoned supply-side than from the demand-side.  General tendency is to use midday-meals as a reason for disadvantaged children to come to school rather than for the sake of education. Midday meal should not be an excuse for children to come to school or parents to send their children to school. It’s a failure to create demand of public schools by delivering quality. (mis)Management of midday meals shifts focus further from teaching-learning evading the accountability. It pacifies parents to demand standards of public schools as users of public (worse off) and private schools (better off) are already segregated. 

Further, there is a tendency to copy policy or at times over commit the ‘givable’ as in a rich industrial state without considering own situation. Else, if committed, parents also can bridge a stretch of gap in meeting the needs for midday meal for children. The populism has created a rampage of dependency to the state where people themselves could help themselves to a certain extent. There are already diverse better practices from different Municipalities. Looking only solution in increasing the budget is also a symbol of dependency mind set.   

There has been news that some public schools in Kailali are going to implement continuous assessment system (CAS) from class 1 to 3 and conduct exams only from class 4 onwards.

There was news in Gorkhapatra that the most errors in the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) results were found to be while tabulating the scores and entering them into the computer. It was seen from the results of the students who had applied for retotaling for not being satisfied with the score obtained, news quoted the National Examination Board.

It was mentioned in the news that there was protest against Tribhuvan University (TU) not providing the transcript of the marks even after 9 months of publication of the results; the students staged a sit-in protest by reading books all night at the Administration Section and the Examination Control Office (ECO) of the University in Balkhu. It was mentioned in the news that the demand of protesting students is that the transcripts should be provided within three days of the announcement of the result and the performance of the ECO should be improved.

The Medical Education Commission is going to launch a new nursing program 'General Nursing' as more students want to study nursing than the number of seats allowed to teach nursing in Nepal, the news published. It was mentioned in the news of Kantipur Daily that a 3-year general nursing course has been approved so that students who have passed Class 12 in any subject can study general nursing.

It can be noted that nursing gives wings to youngsters mostly girls to go abroad as the demand for nurses in industrial countries is high. It’s a tricky move and should be well thought that quality of the course does not erode and nursing qualification from Nepal does not get black-listed as poor. It will be frustrating if the volume of production is high and they are not absorbed in the sector. More students wish to study nursing but has the supply been forecast down the line – let’s say for a decade if not longer? 

Nepal Engineering College in Changunarayan Municipality of Bhaktapur is providing scholarships worth 150 million rupees annually. Along with 10 percent scholarship from the University, there are scholarships provided by the Municipality and Provincial Government and scholarships also provided for college toppers, semester toppers, the news mentioned.

There was news that the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) has prohibited the admission of students in three colleges run the program of foreign universities. It was mentioned in the news that admission of students to Kashyap Institute of Engineering and Technology in Janakpur, Global International College in Madhya Baneshwar, Nepal Education Foundation Consortium College in Khumaltar have been asked not to admit students. Only those colleges can enroll students which conduct foreign university programs with the permission from the MoEST, got the permission to add the program according to the rules and have equivalence for the degree from TU, mentioned the news. MoEST published the list of 56 colleges that have get the permission to run courses affiliated to foreign universities.

There was news that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has ‘instructed’ to maintain the collaboration between Kathmandu University and Dhulikhel Hospital for at least the next five years. It was mentioned in the news that in the 97th assembly of Kathmandu University, Prime Minister Oli, as the Chancellor of the University, instructed to resolve the dispute between the university and the hospital mutually. Due to the fact that Dhulikhel Hospital was about to take approval of the establishment of Academy from the state government and the University was preparing to open its own hospital, there was a dispute and confusion between the two institutions.

There was news that Maiyadevi Kanya Campus of Chitwan has been providing scholarships to female students studying in the campus by creating a Trust Fund. At present, there are 15 million rupees in the Fund. It was mentioned in the news that in addition to their renewable fund, students also get scholarships provided by the University Grants Commission and Bagmati State Government.

Preparations are being made to declare Karnali a fully literate province. It was mentioned in the news that the 23 local governments of Karnali, that are yet to be fully literate, are going to declare themselves fully literate on September 8th. It was mentioned in the news that the Provincial Government has introduced the 'Chief Minister Digital Education Programme' from this fiscal year to improve the quality of education in public schools. 100 million rupees has been allocated this year to run the program.

Similarly, there was news in Gorkhapatra that since the Federal Government did not hand over the Technical Education and Vocational Training Council to the Provinces, the Bagmati Province is preparing to run a similar provincial council. It was also mentioned in the news that change in the provincial government has affected the appointment of the Executive Director of the council. According to the news, the Ministry of Social Development of Bagmati Province had requested an application for the Chief Executive Director of the Provincial Technical Education and Vocational Training Council in the last week of May. Seven people have applied for the post.

Prof. Dr. Bidyanath Koirala wrote an article on Connecting Education with Technology in Kantipur daily, digital devices are just like vessels, anything can be stored in the vessel, when the teachers make the learning materials using the technology, the students start learning from it. It was argued in the article that if students can be connected to research and experience, they will become researchers.

The purpose of this news review is to classify and synthesize the educational content of the week and provide objective comments from the point of view of social justice and creative pedagogy to the policy makers and stakeholders in one place. In this joint effort of Center for Education Policy and Practice (CEPP) and Edukhbar, the news of daily newspapers Kantipur, Gorkhapatra and The Himalayan Times, online news portals Online Khabar, Setopati and Ratopati and Himalaya TV and Nepal Television from 10-16 August 2024 are covered – The Editor.

Read it in Nepali : बजेट अभावले पत्रु खाजा

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