KATHMANDU- It was reported that 115 schools have been damaged due to floods and landslides after incessant rains. Infrastructure such as classrooms, toilets, drinking water, and playgrounds have been damaged in the school, the news came in Kantipur quoting the Information Officer of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) Narayan Pokhrel. According to the news, more damage has been done to schools in Roshi and Bethanchok Rural Municipalities (RM) and Panauti Municipality of Kavre. Seventeen students are reported died in the country and more than 10 thousand students in 12 districts were affected due to the flood and landslide, mentioned the news.

There was news that children's education has been disrupted after the floods inundated schools and settlements in Sarlahi. The pain of students that they will not be able to go to school as school uniforms and textbooks from the home of children of poor families have been flooded, covered the news. More than two dozen schools of Sarlahi's Ramnagar RM and Balara Municipality were damaged by the flood, mentioned in the news. The school will not be able to run for some time due to flooding of classrooms and school premises, reported in the news.

MoEST has published the contact numbers of Information Officers and Spokespersons to note down the details of the damage in the education sector. The ministry has also made public the details received from affected area but it is seen that planning for reconstruction and resumption of schools will be delayed even more because of not being able to collect the exact details of the damage by Ministry's own mechanism. In order to minimize the impact on students' learning in flood-affected schools, it is necessary for the ministry to make an immediate plan and implement it. MoEST should have moved forward to collect the details of damages in coordination with the Ministry of Home Affairs and make plan to regularize educational activities immediately in the damaged schools to.  It is likely to be another episode of excuses for not running public educational institutions. 

There was news that the Center for Education and Human Resource Development (CEHRD) has instructed all municipalities across the country to pay salaries to teachers on a monthly basis. The Center have been issued notices to all the 753 local levels to pay the salaries of the teachers sent by the federal government to the municipalities and to make arrangements for the schools to pay the salaries to the teachers on a monthly basis as per the rules, mentioned in the news.

There was news in Gorkhapatra that there is a problem in furthering the studies of the students who passed the Chance Exam of the School Education Examination (SEE). The students who passed through Chance or Grade Increment Exam, get admission in grade 11 but the students who already passed the SEE regularly in the first week of July have advanced their studies more than 25 percent of the course, so continuing study with the same cohort of students will have problems, the news mentioned.

Implementation of the School Improvement Plan (SIP) in public schools in Birendranagar Municipality of Surkhet is very weak, the news published. The implementation of the plan was found to be weak because the schools made a plan without the participation of all concerned parties without considering school's actual situation and only to fulfill the legal process, mentioned in the news.

It was reported that the MoEST has discussed with the educational consulting companies and instructed them to make their educational activities and financial accounts transparent to make the renew process smooth and indicating that renew will be completed quickly. The ministry is preparing to regularize the monitoring of consulting companies, the news quoted.

There was another news, the Ministry has transferred 218 employees. Employees who have been successful to stay in the ministry for a long time are also among those who are transferred this time!

Thirteen people have applied for the post of the Registrar of the Midwest University, the report published. For the post, the university had called for applications on 15th of September.

Prem Bahadur Thapa wrote an article in Gorkhapatra about the criteria of reviewing Model Schools. Whether the Model School has given special emphasis on the development of all aspects of the individual along with the academic aspect should be reviewed, demanded the article. He mentioned in the article that appropriate physical structure for information and communication technology, provision of alternative energy, access to the internet, virtual classrooms, use of information and communication technology in teaching and learning, and full-time computer teachers and technicians should be seen in the model school. 

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 21-27 September 2024 are covered – The Editor.

Read it in Nepali : बाढीको चपेटामा विद्यार्थी !

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