Asia-Pacific, Development & Aid, Headlines, Poverty & SDGs

EDUCATION-NEPAL: Increasing Budget Not Enough to Meet Goals

Renu Kshetry

HUMLA, Nov 18 2008 (IPS) - While the new Maoist government has dramatically increased the outlay for education in the annual budget to meet the goal of Education for All (EFA) by 2015, a visit to remote, mountainous Limi village in mid-western Nepal shows that the goal will be hard to reach.

The outlay of Rs 38.9 billion (about 500 million US dollars) is 44.5 percent more than the previous year’s allocation.

Also, in order to retain children in schools, the government plans to strengthen the ongoing day-meal programme for 170,000 students in districts facing food shortages, low access to education and low girl-student enrolment.

Limi, a five-day trek from the district headquarters of Simikot, loses all contact with the rest of the country during the winter season.

But remoteness is only one problem, says Barkha Bahadur Karki, acting district education officer. “The parents here are not literate and are not aware about the importance of sending their kids to the schools… Even the teachers do not bother to attend classes.”

Three schools – Bhrikuti Primary School in Jang, Sunakhani Primary School in Halji and Himshikhar Primary School in Til – have been running here for two decades, but not a single student has passed grade one till now. Lack of students and teachers in these schools and a trend to send students to gumbas, (monasteries) to study Buddhist culture, have further aggravated the problem.

The government has allotted two primary teachers to each of the schools, but the teachers are busy at Limi where they get temporary teaching assignments. This year, Bhrikuti primary has 39 students on its rolls, Sunakhani has 68 and Himshikhar 33 students. Raj Bahadur Aidi, one of the teachers at Bhrikuti who is just back from Limi after overseeing the construction of the school building there, claimed proudly that, unlike other teachers, he and a colleague at Sunakhani, do make rounds of their assigned schools.

But, Aidi admitted, no classes were held because attendance was low and the teachers had to spend time socialising with the guardians. “We always get royal treatment,” he said of the response he gets from parents. Aidi said that when he joined the school three years ago there were only five students, so he initiated a door-to-door campaign to encourage parents to send up their wards. With support from a lama, revered by the local Buddhist population, attendance has improved, but actually imparting instructions is another matter. Clearly, while the government has plans, programmes and budget to enhance the quality of education, it does not have a monitoring mechanism to ensure that funds are properly utilised.

“We don’t have school inspectors even though there is a provision,’’ explained Karki. “And we have no other option but to pay them (teachers) salaries as their documents are in order.’’ “Also the parents have given up complaining,’’ said Karki. The last time a delegation of parents filed a complaint demanding that regular classes be conducted, the district education office found no basis to take action. “To be honest, we are doing injustice to them [parents and children],” said Aidi. “We are taking advantage of their innocence.” Aidi added: “Now that a British-based NGO is sending private tutors to schools, it poses a serious challenge to us [teachers].”

Prof. Bidyanath Koirala, a renowned educationist, said it was time teachers took responsibility to actually educate the children under their care. “If the government cannot take action against errant teachers then the lamas should be involved as they have a say in this area,’’ said Koirala.

“The government cannot escape responsibility, there should be strong mechanism to check such law violation,” said Koirala. “Only increasing the budget cannot achieve the EFA goal.”