Dire Teacher Dearth

Community schools in Nepal are facing an acute shortage of teachers in their classes. The dearth of teachers, mainly in English, math, and science, has affected the students’ study badly, especially at remote schools, rendering the constitutional promise to provide free and quality school education to all Nepali children unfulfilled. 

Nepal government had announced the concept of ‘Teacher Bank’ to solve the problem of teacher shortage in its 2025/26 federal budget in May 2025. The government had aimed at managing teachers for remote schools through a reserve of teachers in collaboration with universities. According to the plan, the government will prepare a roster of qualified university graduates to supply as per the demand of teachers. 

However, the aftermath of the Gen-Z movement has changed the priority of the new government and has slowed the implementation of the concept. Now, the whole nation’s attention is on the snap poll scheduled for March 5. As a result, thousands of students in community schools are deprived of their rights to quality education. 

In many remote community schools, students have been taught by the teachers assigned to teach in lower levels, who often cannot complete the course on time. As a result, the students have to join expensive private tuition centers. For that purpose, they have to leave their homes and rent rooms in the district headquarters, where their living cost is often much higher than they can afford. 

The main reason for the shortage is said to be the long-overdue vacancies in community schools across the country. The lack of eligible candidates for the posts and the long-term leaves taken by permanent teachers, such as maternity leave, sick leave, or transfer to another school, are blamed for this situation. According to government data, in the academic year 2081/82, approximately 5,640 permanent posts were vacant in the country across three levels – 4,462 in primary, 811 in lower secondary, and 367 in secondary. Among them, the vacant posts in English, Science, and Math were 268, 252, and 208, respectively, in all three levels. 

If implemented properly, the ‘Teacher Bank’ concept would be beneficial not only for the students but also for the university graduates because it would give them an opportunity for placements as volunteer teachers or interns. As they would also get the minimum standard wage for their contribution, it would be an earning while learning experience for them. 

However, the implementation of the concept in practice will not be easy for the government. It has integrated the concept into the controversial School Education Bill and has allocated the specific funds under the “Earn While You Learn” scheme. But the present government has no legislative validation for it. Moreover, the friction between the government and the teachers’ unions over the concept of ‘Teacher Bank’ has also complicated the issue. The teachers’ unions have been demanding to convert more than 50 thousand relief and contract positions into permanent and pensionable posts rather than creating a ‘second class’ of temporary teachers reserved in ‘Teacher Bank’. 

Also, the qualified graduates in STEM subjects have always been reluctant to work in remote areas without extra allowances. Therefore, even after preparing the roster of teachers in the ‘Teacher Bank,’ the government will have difficulty managing the teachers for remote community schools because of the extra load on its budget. Even with extra allowances, there will be many teachers who will not be ready to go to the distant schools. 

Therefore, the roster system alone cannot solve the problem until the teaching profession is made as prestigious and well-paid as the civil service in Nepal.