The country celebrated its 29th National Education Day on the eve of protracted strikes on educational institutions. Despite repeated appeals from various quarters, nobody has taken it seriously to leave schools and colleges alone. They are targeted for mostly non-educational purposes. While the news reports that Maoists are abducting the schools students of far-flung villages allegedly to provide military training are streaming, the schools and colleges in urban Nepal are also under the Damocles’ sword. Whether the student unions, political parties or teachers’ agitation, everyone seems to be targeting the education sector. All this comes at a time when the country was struggling to fulfill the Education for All goals by 2015

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

If you pass across any public college early in the morning these days, you could be forgiven to mistake it for a venue of mass political meeting. Student activists would be seen giving out long speeches within campus venues ostensibly as a part of their campaign for the student union polls (February 26).

The environment in colleges resemble to that of political parties’ meeting on the eve of general election. Colorful confetti, walls painted with slogans and handouts of different contestants will welcome any visitor. Interestingly, the speeches of student activists, these days, are devoid of most of the issues close to education. Rather, they are filled with political rhetoric and vows to end regression.

Falgun 12 (February 24) marks a sacred day for education sector of Nepal. This day, in 1975, then King Birendra, during his coronation, had declared the primary education free and outlined the priority towards the education sector.

However, in the past few years, the celebration of the Education Day is without the zeal previously associated with it. This year, the situation has further deteriorated.

The student wing of the Maoists has announced five-day strike on educational institutions (February 25-29). Their strike is aimed at disrupting the Free Student Union (FSU) polls in the campuses since they being outlawed, could not take part in it. As a result, they have resorted to burning and vandalizing colleges, mainly in far-away places.

Teachers, who were threatening to boycott the annual nation-wide School Leaving Certificate examinations (to be held in March), withdrew their agitation at the last minute providing a sense of relief to over 250,000 examinees and one million parents, who would have been directly affected had they gone ahead with their previous plan.

Moreover, dangerous news reports have been coming up that Maoists are abducting students by the hundreds to provide military training to them. A disturbing news that the Maoists are trying to raise 50,000 child militia by April/May this year has come in the wake of series of abductions of students by the rebels. The Maoists have abducted hundreds of students and dozens of teachers from Holeri, in southern Rolpa district, and have taken them to unknown location. The Maoists have abducted students studying at grade 6 to 10 as well as teachers from a local school.

Likewise, recently, the armed Maoists had announced that they would provide military training to students and teachers of Bal Udaya secondary school in Madichaur of Rolpa district.

Strikes and School Days

Strikes and closures have become a commonplace in Nepal due to incessant political instability. In the last one and a half month alone, four different strikes had been called with five more in the offing within this month.

And all this has taken a severe toll on the school days. The seventh amendment in Education Act 2058 prescribes at least 220 school days per year. But this target is simply unachievable to public schools.

As one educationist puts it: just take for instance, in one year, 52 days are Saturdays (thus holidays), 60 days are vacation days, 25-30 days are public holidays, 10 days are local festivities and around a month of strikes and bandhs. Over six months are used up by these various kinds of holidays and in the remaining six months, how can you nudge up 220 days?

Professor Dr. Mana Prasad Wagle also cites an example to clarify the picture of average school days in the country, “Five years ago, then district education officer Bhoj Raj Kafle of Bardiya district had done a research on his own, which showed that, on average, the total number of schools days in the district was 79 days per year. This speaks volume about our situation.” (See box) According to him while private schools have been able to manage these school days by compensating for lost days by opening classes on weekends as well as on public holidays, the government schools have not been able to cross 125 days on average.

Frustrated by the strikes and bandhs, even United Nations has started to issue statements appealing to leave education alone. In view of the five-day strike in education institution announced by the Maoist student wing, the United Nations Information Center in Kathmandu issued a statement urging all concerned to put the interests of children and youths above everything else. “It is tragic that children will lose out on a number of days of learning because of a political dispute among adults,” the press release stated.

Learning computers : Please, do not disturb
Learning computers : Please, do not disturb
In addition to that, the seven student organizations affiliated to various political parties have also begun to hold discussions on the ‘relevancy of monarchy in Nepal’ in schools and colleges across the country – as a response to the King’s stubborn-ness against handing over the power he assumed in October 2002.

Gagan Thapa, general secretary of Nepal Students Union (NSU) – largest student organization, said, “Since the King has hijacked the democracy yet again in the country, we want to launch political debate regarding the relevancy of monarchy in Nepal. We believe that monarchy has always stood in the way of democratic development of the country.”

This move by the student unions has already worried the parents and school operators. Private and Boarding Schools Organization of Nepal (PABSON) has already urged the student organizations not to initiate political activities within schools and colleges. “We have been demanding that the educational institutions be declared as zone of peace. By initiating political debates in schools, they will be negatively affecting the psyche of students. It is not necessary to raise political interest among small school children,” said Umesh Shrestha, president of PABSON.

“The whole system of education has become dysfunctional because while Maoists, on the one hand, have targeted students and teachers; the parliamentary parties as well as establishment elements are also mobilizing and exploiting the students. As such, the educational institutions have become a battleground where different forces are flexing their muscles,” said Dr. Min Bahadur Bista, associate professor at the Tribhuwan University and an education expert.

All this has compelled a group of students to knock the court’s door as well. The Supreme Court of Nepal has summoned political parties, student unions and the government for discussion upon hearing a writ petition filed by five university students who were upset over the string of strikes announced in the recent months and its direct impact on the teaching-learning environment.

“The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal clearly guarantees individuals’ right to education and right to engage in occupation of choice, but the strikes and Bandhs called by various political parties breach their fundamental and constitutionally-guaranteed rights. The petitioners seek to establish this,” said advocate Bal Krishna Neupane, who pleaded on their behalf at the court.

Neupane adds that while the Constitution also guarantees the right to hold peaceful protest, the organizers of Bandh must realize that their actions should not be forcefully implemented breaching others’ rights.

A girld student : Is her future secure?
A girld student : Is her future secure?
The practice in Nepal has been such that the organizers of Bandhs often engage in violently subduing the general mass into following their dictum. Whether mainstream political parties or the outlawed Maoists organize the Bandh, the common people are often intimidated by acts of vandalism. And educational institutions have continued to become prime target of such Bandhs. Often, schools and colleges, both private and public, remain totally closed during days of Bandh. In the last one-year alone, the educational institutions remained closed for more than 25 days owing to academic strikes and general Bandh.

Quality and Investment

Education is still the P1 – priority number one – of the government. Not only the government but also a herd of donors are committed to improve education in the country.

The government investment in education sector has been growing. “It is now around 15 percent of the total annual budget,” said Dr. Bista. In the current fiscal year, the government had announced the total budget of Rs. 102.4 billion.

“Looking at the budget provision in education sector since 1996, the trend is growing, particularly on primary education. Out of the total education budget, 55-60 percent is for the primary education,” said Dr. Bista.

Dr. Bista said that since there is a huge involvement of donors, who pour in billions of rupees in this sector, the government would not reduce investment in education. “Besides, the government has also tied up the primary education with its poverty reduction goals,’ he said. “As such, I have not seen that the rising expenditure on security has had any impact on education.”

Despite such heavy investment, the quality, however, has not improved desirably. “The government and donors have been putting huge resources since 1992. But none of them are seeking quality, it seems. In the last one decade, the pass percentage of students has rather decreased,” asserts Professor Wagle.

He cites the national achievement studies – which have shown that average marks secured in subjects like English and Math is below 30 percent whereas in other subjects it is 50 percent. “In 1993 a secondary education project was initiated which spent US$ 100 million in six years but in the same period we saw the SLC pass percentage tumble from 46 to 31 percent. So far as higher education is concerned, another project had been initiated around 1993 in which the World Bank gave loan amount of around US$ 1 billion. In that year, the average pass percentage of students studying subjects like Humanities, Management, Education, Science and Law was around 36 percent. This figure came down to 13 percent in the end of 1999. These figures do not show any progress on quality,” Dr. Wagle added.

Nepal had made tremendous progress in educating its citizens over the last five decades. The general literacy rate has jumped from 2 percent in 1950 to around 50 percent today. Government investment in the sector has increased considerably, reaching around 15 percent of the total annual budget. More than five million students are enrolled in primary and secondary level schools. Enrollment in higher education, too, is growing by an average of nine percent a year.

Likewise, big strides had been made in the education infrastructure development. Access to schools had improved substantially. The average walk from home to school now takes about half an hour. Every Village Development Committee (VDC) has at least a couple of schools. There are 25,599 schools in the country, with 8,547 being private ones (Education Statistics of Nepal 1999).

However, all these achievements could unravel if the present trend of targeting educational institutions continues unabated.