JUNIOR CAMBRIDGE SECONDARY SCHOOL: March 2011

Education in Nepal

Modern education in Nepal began with the establishment of the first school in 1853; this school was only for the members of the ruling families and their courtiers. Schooling for the general people began only after 1951 when a popular movement ended the autocratic Rana family regime and initiated a democratic system. In the past 50 years, there has been a dramatic expansion of education facilities in the country. As a result, adult literacy (age 15+) of the country was reported to be 48.2% (female: 34.6%, male: 62.2%) in the Population Census, 2001, up from about 5% in 1952–54. Beginning from about 300 schools and two colleges with about 10,000 students in 1951, there now are 26,000 schools (including higher secondary), 415 colleges, five universities, and two academies of higher studies. Altogether 5.5 million students are enrolled in those schools and colleges who are served by more than 150,000 teachers.

Despite such examples of success, there are problems and challenges. Education management, quality, relevance, access are some of the critical issues of education in Nepal. Societal disparities based on gender, ethnicity, location, economic class, etc. are yet to be eliminated. Resource crunch has always been a problem in education. These problems have made the goal of education for all a challenge for the country.

Administration

The Ministry of Education is the apex body responsible for initiating and managing education activities in the country. The Minister of Education, assisted by the State/Assistant Minister, provides political leadership to the Ministry. The Ministry, as a part of the government bureaucracy, is headed by the Secretary of Education and consists of the central office, various functional offices, and offices located at the regional and district levels. The Central Office or the Ministry is mainly responsible for policy development, planning and monitoring, and evaluation regarding different aspects of education.

With a purpose of bringing education administration nearer to the people, the Ministry has established five Regional Directorates and 75 District Education Offices in five development regions and 75 districts respectively. These decentralized offices are responsible for overseeing nonformal and school-level education activities in their respective areas. Regional Directorates are mainly responsible for coordinating and monitoring and evaluation of education activities and the District Education Offices are the main implementing agencies.

NCED^] is an apex body for teacher training in Nepal. There are 34 Educational Training Centers (ETCs) under NCED to support the teachers in pedagogical areas. ETC Sunsari, ETC Dhulikhel and ETC Tanahun/Educational Training Center Damauli are the leading training centers under NCED. NCED was established in B. S. 2050 but it could not take speed much until Arjun Bahadur Bhandari was appointed as an Executive Director. Now it is running full-fledged and implementing "Teacher Education Project" to train the pre-service and in-service teachers throughout the country.

Structure

Education in Nepal is structured as school education and higher education. School education includes primary level of grades 1–5, lower secondary and secondary levels of grades 6–8 and 9–10 respectively. Pre-primary level of education is available in some areas. Six years old is the prescribed age for admission into grade one. A national level School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination is conducted at the end of grade 10.

Grades 11 and 12 are considered as higher secondary level. Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB) supervises higher secondary schools which are mostly under private management. Previously these grades were under the university system and were run as proficiency certificate level. Though some universities still offer these programs, the policy now is to integrate these grades into the school system.

Higher education consists of bachelor, masters, and PhD levels. Depending upon the stream and subject, bachelors level may be of three to five years' duration. The duration of masters level is generally two years. Some universities offer programs like M Phil and post-graduate diplomas.

Legally, there are two types of school in the country: community and institutional. Community schools receive regular government grants whereas institutional schools are funded by school's own or other non-governmental sources. Institutional schools are organized either as a non-profit trust or as a company. However, in practical terms, schools are mainly of two types: public (community) and private (institutional).

A third type of school is the kind run by the local people enthusiastic toward having a school in their locality. They do not receive regular government grants and most of them do not have any other sustainable financial source. Supported and managed by the local people, they can be thus identified as the real community schools.

Except one, all universities/academies are publicly managed and are supported by public source fund. However, public universities also provide affiliation to private colleges. Two academies of higher education are single college institutes whereas other universities have constituent and affiliated colleges across the country.*

Years in schools, colleges and universities

1. Nursery

2. Lower Kindergarten (LKG)

3. Upper Kindergarten (UKG)

4. First Grade

5. Second Grade

6. Third Grade

7. Fourth Grade

8. Fifth Grade

9. Sixth Grade

10. Seventh Grade

11. Eighth Grade

12. Ninth Grade

13. Tenth Grade

14. SLC (School Leaving Certificate) (A test based on Tenth Grade study. To appear in SLC exam the student must complete pre-test exam of Tenth Grade based on SLC exam pattern.)

15. 10+2 (Intermediate Level) (two years)

16. Bachelors (three or four years)

17. Masters (two years)

18. Ph.D.