Kathmandu, Jan 27: A majority of people is clearly favour of making primary education compulsory, in addition to its being already free. A snap poll taken by the Media Services International ((MSI) between October 28 and November 3 in Chitwan recorded 93 per cent of the respondents voting for compulsory primary education in Nepal.

While only 6 per cent of those interviewed was not sure if the idea was a good one, 1 per cent did not express any opinion whatsoever.

The snap poll covered a total of 199 households in Bhandara (50), Meghauli (50), Gardi (23), Baghauda (15), Ayodhyapuri (12), all VDCs, and in Bharatpur sub Municipality (49). Male-female ratio of the respondents was 120-79.

Fielding the quesiton, “Do you know primary education is free in Nepal?”, 92 per cent said they did, whereas 6 per cent did not answer the query and 2 per cent said they did not know, according to MSI press release.

Asked about how much were they spending monthly on their children’s primary education excluding the tuition fee which is free, in the case of son 54 per cent said between Rs. 200 and 1000, 32.7 per cent said less than Rs. 200 and 5.5 per cent said above Rs. 1000. Seven per cent did not provide any informaiton, said press release.

Similarly, in the case of daughters 58.8 per cent said the monthly expenses for the same was between Rs. 200 and 1000, 26.6 per cent said less than Rs. 200 and 10.1 per cent said above 1000. Those in the “don’t know” bracket accounted for 7% of the respondents.

Expenses apart, happily 96 per cent of the respondents said that they were willing and could afford to send their daughters to the secondary level after completing the primary level education, stated it. Only 3 per cent of the interviewees said they could not afford secondary level educaiton for their daughters. An equal percentage said they did not know.

Other findings of the poll include housewives know less about free primary education, girls outnumber boys in primary schools, higher the level, greater the rate of girl drop-outs and male-female ratio in university enrollment is approximately 7-3.

The poll survey was undertaken with the cooperation of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, London.