It needs new law to overhaul education system: Lawmaker Shrestha
KATHMANDU, Aug 26: It needs a new law to overhaul the education system and bring changes in quality of education, says lawmaker Umesh Shrestha, also a member of the education committee in parliament.

The Office of President approved the eighth amendment of Education Act 1972 as per Article 113 (2) of Constitution of Nepal 2073 (2016) about two months ago. The bill of the Act was endorsed by the Parliament about three months ago.

The amended act has envisioned the school level education at basic/elementary (grades one to eight) and secondary level (grades nine to 12) from the existing primary (grades one to five), lower-secondary (grades six to eight), secondary (grades nine to 10) and higher secondary (grades 11 to 12) levels.

The amended Act provisions two categories of private schools-new ones under trusts and old ones under company, free education upto 12 Class, transfer of teachers as civil servants and evaluation and promotion of teachers on the basis of school results, according to the Ministry of Education (MoE). It also scraps the Higher Secondary Education Board, integrates Plus Two level into School level education and sorts out decades-long problem of temporary teachers.

The new act has also made provision to form National Education Council, National Examination Board (NEB) and Education Review Office.

“Despite affirmative changes in law, this kind of shallow amendment in the education act does not ensure better education system and quality of education as per need of present  era,” said Shrestha, talking to the Republica. “In a bid to overhaul the education system and bring changes in quality, we must formulate a new policy and bring new education law in the country as per the federal system,” he added. “National Education Commission above the ministry is inevitable to promote quality by maintaining strong requirements of educational institutions and discourage politicization in the education sector. If we fail to do so, we will fall far behind.”

Shrestha said that quality of education in government schools should be drastically uplifted, 20 per cent of total budget of the country be allocated for the sector, and be given priority on the technical and vocational education for the job oriented education. “Government schools should adopt the English medium teaching learning process, equip with modern technologies, strong reward and punishment system and manage teacher-student ratio by 1:30,” he suggested.

Higher education system of the country is less productive and outdated, according to Shrestha. “We should bring such a policy to make Nepal an educational hub by opening more universities including deemed universities instead of adding affiliated campuses. Tribhuvan University alone has 1050 affiliated campuses. Other regional universities have opened their affiliated campuses in unrelated regions here. What kind of education system are we following?” he wondered.  “We have to go for research and development oriented education system instead of orthodox one,” said Shreastha, who is also a pioneer in private sector of education.

 
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• lawmaker umesh shrestha
 
• education act 1972
 
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