EDUCATION IN NEPAL :WHY ARE WE LAGGING BEHIND?

 

Education is a major tool that provides knowledge, skill, procedure, information and empowers people to know their rights and responsibilities towards their family, society and the nation. Education can be thought of as the transmission of the values and accumulated knowledge of a society. Education has now become very necessary for a person to live a healthy life and survive in the society. Education can encourage economic growth less directly, by increasing modernization, productivity, and human capital. And education also has a history of nurturing positive social change, by encouraging things like political participation, social equality, and environmental sustainability.

Despite its rich and sensational culture, Nepal is the country with a very low literacy level. Only a little over 50% of the population of Nepal know how to read and write. Women in Nepal are less literate than men – only 42% percent of women are literate, whereas 68% of men can read and write. There are a number of reasons why parents do not want their children to attend classes. First of all, although schools are free of charge, they do not get many investments; therefore, parents are forced to pay for the school needs.

 

For low-income families this is quite challenging. Besides, for many families to send a child to school means to lose a worker which leads to big financial problems in these families. Another reason why for some children it is hard to study in school is that only around 50% of children in this country can speak the official language of Nepal: the rest of the children speak local languages and are not bilingual. Today, however, the language situation is getting better: while Nepali is still the major language of instruction, local languages are also used in school in rural areas as well as Sanskrit and English (higher education).

 

In the context of Nepal, over the last 20 years, it has made significant progress in education. The net registration rate in primary schools has risen to 97 per cent. However, the country still has many challenges to tackle. Nepal has improved a lot in its education system but still is lagging behind. The education system here is monotonous. The education here mainly gives importance to the grades and GPA scored by the student rather than making sure if they really understood the concept taught or if they actually studied. The students are forced to study the subjects which they are not interested in or something that they don’t require to pursue their career.  Students who are poor in studies are acknowledged to be dumb and treated in a different way than the students good in studies.

Not only this, but they are also punished or given detention rather than consoling them and giving them proper guidance which leads to mental pressure and trauma which makes the situation even worse.

Grades are important but Grades are not the measure of a person nor are they even the sole measure of academic accomplishment. They are only one rather imperfect reflection of how much you have learned in your various courses.

GRADES AND MARKS DO NOT REFLECT THE INTELLIGENCE OF INDIVIDUALS. INTELLIGENCE DIFFERS PERSON TO PERSON AND CANNOT BE MEASURE AT THE SAME SCALE.

But still we need good grades to continue our higher studies. But actually grades are not a problem, it’s the comparison. We are compared with a person scoring better grades than us. This is the problem. Everyone has different talents, different hobbies and different interests. We are a competition to ourselves. How can we be compared to a person who is completely different from us? This is why we are lagging behind. A person who is good in arts is not appreciated as much as a person who scores A+.

Here in Nepal a person having good participation in arts, sports, or any other extra-curricular activities is not given much importance. Children or teenagers are forced to study something that their parents want or pursue a career which they have zero interest. This destroys that person’s life. Studying something that you’re not interested makes you dull and you cannot actually do well in that field.

Here you are labelled as a useless person if not good in studies. Your talent is nowhere considered as long as you’re not good academically. This is the problem which needs to be tackled. All the school and colleges should treat every student equally rather than separating them in sections which makes them insecure.

Nepalese education system focuses mainly on theoretical concept rather than practical inference. Subjects to study are many but their application is of little value mainly due to the developing political and economic condition of Nepal. The lessons we study was once studied by our parent too, that makes us wonder why education in Nepal does not change with time.  There is a serious need to reform the curriculum. The students focus on passing exams than gaining knowledge ignoring the need of having education in the first place.  The main reason for this is the system of calculating the students’ knowledge. Yes, ranking students in numbers on the basis of three hours experiments exams are corrupting the quality of education. It is unfair how hundred plus days of studies are tested in a mere of three hours. The evaluation model needs to be changed. The content to study in the changing world and capacity to meet competition are changing simultaneously. We satisfy ourselves by looking at the increasing literacy rate but is this a reason to be happy?

Another problem in Nepal is, Although Nepal mostly struggles with the education of girls, and the more prominent concern is availability of education in general. The main issue lies in the caste system that has been surrounded in the people of Nepal.

There are many indigenous families and tribes residing in Nepal. Most of them follow traditions that have been passed on throughout generations. One of these common traditions is to send your son to school, but not your daughter. This is because parents value the education of their sons’ more, as they believe that their daughters will start a family and won’t need one.

These all are the problems that we face in Nepal in the field of education.

The need of today is to remain above literacy and up to a benchmark as we are backward. The importance to meet the standard has been witnessed by most. As a result, Nepal’s education system is slowly taking its turn for the better. The reform in evaluating primary and secondary schooling, introduction of various subjects and passage of various educational legislation may overcome some of the flaws.

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thehimalayantimes.com