— Dr. Mana Prasad Wagle

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Dr. Mana Prasad Wagle is the Professor of Education, Faculty of Education at the Tribhuwan University. He has been involved in teaching profession for the last two and a half decades. A noted educationist, Dr. Wagle is current deputed to Dean’s Office at the faculty where he is the coordinator of Open Learning and Distance Education. A visiting professor at the Kathmandu University, he spoke to SANJAYA DHAKAL on various issues relating to the state of education at present. Excerpts:

How do you find the current state of education in the country?

In the last couple of years, the state of education has deteriorated, I must say. The days after the restoration of democracy were not good as expected, particularly for the education sector. Some of the damages that were inflicted on education sector include incursions by un-experienced people with party affiliations; changes effected in syllabi without giving due attention to their efficacy and utilization; rampant appointment/promotion of teachers and so on. These things have thoroughly messed up the education sector. Then, another negative development was the emergence of various students, teachers and professors association. There came a time when professors’ association supported when some irate students burnt the library and vandalized colleges.

What about the impact of various bandhs and strikes?

We have found that whoever they may be the bandh organizers always target educational institutions. There is a perverted logic to this. Any organizer of strikes would naturally want their effort to have maximum impact on maximum number of people. There are around 6.5 million people involved in the education sector in Nepal including students from nurseries to higher education, teachers and so on. None other sector could boast such a huge involvement. Any disturbance on this sector is bound to effect majority of families. But these bandh organizers have never given a thought that their act is pushing the country backwards by many years. There is a prevalent tendency that one must resort to violence; one must burn tires to make the other one meet its demands. And schools and colleges are targeted even to oppose the rise in the price of kerosene.

What do you think about the student union activities, then?

They should be fully education-oriented. I think politics should be kept out of educational institutions. The student unions should concentrate on educational matters and promote quality in education. The current ongoing student polls have also shown how the teaching-learning environment has been disturbed by such activities.

Even teachers had threatened to boycott SLC exam to press their demands. What do you say?

For teachers to threaten that they would boycott or disturb SLC examination is an indication of their intellectual bankruptcy. Their actions could affect around 250,000 innocent students and also hurt the sentiments of over 1 million parents. Teachers, if they actually go ahead and disrupt the annual examination, would have to face the wrath of students and parents. Although, schools have been somewhat protected from political interference due to absence of student unions there, these things plus the insurgency has greatly affected them.

To what extent have these strikes affected the annual school days in Nepal?

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. Before the seventh amendment of Education Act was introduced (in 2058), it was stated that the annual schools days had to exceed 180 days. The seventh amendment has raised this to 220 days – which compares favorably with the international average school days of around 220 to 225. Private schools, I must say, have been able to manage these school days. They compensate for lost days by opening classes on weekends as well as on public holidays. But, the government schools have not been able to cross 125 days on average.

Do you think the educations we are imparting are quality education?

Unfortunately, the word quality has never been defined in our country. Whether quality means securing first division marks or the glamour attached with private schools, it is not clear. There is not system of monitoring the learning outcome.

But the government has been pouring so much money in this sector, is it not?

It is and even 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. If you look at the sector of primary education, you will find that 78 percent of the school buildings are not child-friendly. 56 percent of teachers are untrained. Only 40 percent of those joining grade one reach up to grade five. The national achievement studies have shown that average marks secured in subjects like English and Math is below 30 percent whereas in other subjects it is 50 percent. Still, there are 19 percent of children who despite being of school-going age, are out of primary schools.

What about secondary and higher education?

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. More than 60 percent of teachers in secondary level schools are still untrained. Only 27 percent of children belonging to that age group are enrolled in secondary level schools. 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.