Ensure adequate budget for education to achieve SDG

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Dec. 18: The stakeholders have expressed their concerns that the goal of sustainable development cannot be achieved if the government does not allocate the necessary budget to the education sector.  

Although the plans and programmes are good, it cannot be implemented due to a lack of budget, they said.

Speaking at an interaction programme on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)' Implementation Status, Challenges and Opportunities organised by the Education Journalist Group on Friday, they said that the SDG can be achieved only if all three level governments promise to do so. 

Ghanshyam Aryal, under-secretary of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, insisted that the target will be achieved at the scheduled time if programmes get required budget.

Under-secretary Aryal said that it is difficult to conduct more programmes as a large portion of the budget goes to teachers' salary.

He informed that there is still a shortage of 53,000 teachers at the school level and that 1,800 secondary schools still don't have teachers' quotas. But if all three levels of government invest in partnership, the goal can be achieved, he added

On the other hand, the local people's representatives claimed that if the federal government does not provide the necessary budget, it will be difficult to achieve the sustainable development goal in education. 

Umesh Bhatta, treasurer of the National Federation of Rural Municipality, Nepal, complained that the federal government gave plans and responsibilities to the local governments but not the needed budget.

Similarly, the head of Panchadeval Binayak Municipality Achham, Ambika Chalene, said that they could work for quality only after arranging the ratio of teachers to students in schools all over the country.

Rita Tiwari Humagain, head of Padyakanya Secondary School, Dilli Bazar, said that educational plans can't achieved because of the trends to lay out plans by neglecting schools and teachers.

Dhurba Regmi, education head at UNESCO Kathmandu, said that the goal of sustainable development will be achieved with the commitment and cooperation of all parties. He emphasised that all parties need to join hands for this.

Suresh Kumar Joshi, director of Centre for Education and Human Resource Development, said that the government is moving forward to achieve the goal of sustainable development in education.