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Posted on Apr 2, 2007
by Sarah TOUMI.
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Status of Education
The major issues concerning basic education of Nepal include massive... more »
Status of Education
The major issues concerning basic education of Nepal include massive increase in school enrolment, wide variation in enrolment by place of residence, region, ethnicity and income level, low attendance and high repetition and drop out rates, persistence of gender disparity in education, increasing involvement of the private sector and NGOs in the education sector, rising government expenditure on education, but increasing dependency on foreign aid to finance the education sector.
In spite of high enrolment rate, net enrolment is only 70 percent, i.e. only 70% of primary school aged children (6 to 10 years) are enrolled. The high gross enrolment is caused by enrolment of too young children and by the high repetition rate, leading to primary school enrolment of children above 10 years of age. The gender discrimination in primary school enrolment has narrowed over the last decades. Girls constituted only 12% of the enrolled children. Government policy interventions have directly and/or indirectly contributed to this process of change, including scholarships for children’s, recruitment of female teachers and promotion of public awareness of the importance of education especially for girls.
Despite this considerable increase in girls’ enrolment in the last decades, there are still marked differences. Boys were enrolled 80% in primary school whereas the number of girl’s enrolment was only less than 20%. Gender biased enrolment rates can be seen in all parts of the country, with the gender gap generally being wider in rural areas than in urban. Between the development regions, the widest gaps are seen in the western regions.
The net enrolment rate at primary level varies by rural/urban residence, ethnicity, region and district. The net primary enrolment rate in rural areas is considerably lower than the urban. The reasons most commonly cited by parents, as corroborated by both national and district level studies, are that the parents are too poor to defray the educational expenses (such as registration fees, textbooks, clothes, etc), that the child had to help at home and on the farm, that the child does not want to go to school and that the school is too far from home.
In spite of increasing primary school enrolment, the school attendance rate is poor and rates of repetition dropout in the primary grades are very high. As a result of high repetition students take longer than the required of years of study to complete primary education. The main reasons for the high dropout and repetition rates are household work burden, inability to pa for education related costs, physical distance of school, irrelevant curricula, low quality of education, overcrowding in schools, and humiliation and corporal punishment by teachers.
One of the major concerns for basic education in Nepal is the quality. Although many more schools have been built and more children are starting class 1, a large proportion dropout before completing primary level education. Results of learning achievements tests are equally disappointing. A recent study on achievement found that in mathematics, Nepali and social studies, mean achievements were less than 50% for class 3 students. This low level achievement can be explained by inadequate teacher training, lack of motivation on the part of teachers due to low salaries and limited opportunities for career development, high teacher absenteeism, lack of a proper environment of learning due to poor classroom facilities with no electricity, poor ventilation and over-crowding, and the poor nutritional status of children. Over 50% of children aged 6-36 months suffer from chronic malnutrition that prevents them realizing their full physical or mental potential. Regardless to say of increased primary school enrolment, many girls/children are still “missing”.
Extract from an article wrote by Mr. Abhipraya Subedi less «
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