New Education Policy Under Scrutiny

One of the agenda items in the 100-point governance reform work plan, the point also reiterated in the ‘national commitment’ paper unveiled on March 14 by the government, relates to keeping schools and colleges free from political-party interference. Partisanisation and politicisation are two different, though not mutually exclusive, concepts. Nepal’s public institutions have suffered because of partisan politics, with the members of these institutions becoming loyal to certain political parties and allowing them to influence, interfere and even dictate policies and practices and using that loyalty to commit dereliction of duty with abandon. We tend to mistake the first for the second and vice versa.

 Departisanising, not depoliticisation, is what would work well for educational institutions because they are also the platforms for political debates, where students become politically aware and develop their preferences or convictions for political ideologies and faiths.  This issue calls for a separate discussion. This article aims to analyse some new policies introduced by the government for school education reforms and their possible impacts on the learning outcomes of students. First, the government has decided to scrap internal exams for students up to grade five. Yes, there are countries like Finland, Norway and the UK which do not give periodic exams to kids, even those in higher grades than five. 

Formative assessment

 Doing away with exams is often justified because it frees students from the exam burden, stress, and fear of failure.  Thus, one could argue that students should not be subjected to standardised exams until the last year of high school (like in Finland).  One will find merits and demerits of giving exams, rigorous follow-up on homework, and strong disciplinary rules for kids. It’s largely a question of which side you want to stand on. For example, a 2024 research paper entitled “The Role of Formative and Summative Assessment in Improving Learning Quality and Student Learning Outcomes” by Riska Mustamin, published in “Journal of Strategy and Transformation in Educational Management,” shows that both formative and summative assessments are important to achieve the learning goals of the students. 

The Nepali school education system has been following periodic examinations as a tool to assess and evaluate the learning of students and to track their progress or lack thereof. It is a reliable means for the teachers to understand how well, or not well, their students are understanding the lessons, identify their weaknesses, and plan remedial measures. How well removing internal exams will work in Nepal is yet to be seen, but exams, in the Nepali context, are believed to encourage students to study consistently.  In Nepal, learning needs of students vary based on geography, type of school (private or government funded), and the availability (or lack of) trained teachers. The majority of schools, both private and government-funded, give tests that motivate students to do homework and study the lessons properly. In other words, exams are thought to keep students engaged with studies.

The second issue is related to the Secondary Education Examination (SEE). Whether the SEE should be scrapped for once and all or should be entrusted to the concerned school has been a matter of debate. But the kind of technique the government adopted this year to ensure publication of SEE results within a month was beset with loopholes.  The government asked the respective SEE exam centres to evaluate the papers of SEE students. This has had two unintended results. First, the teachers knew whose papers they were evaluating. Second, more so in places outside of Kathmandu, parents knew who was evaluating their wards’ papers, making it easier for them to influence the teachers to grade their wards generously.  Teachers jokingly say this year nearly every SEE student is going to get a 4 GPA. Only if the coding system had been implemented, this situation would have been partly corrected.  

The third decision is related to running schools five days a week (Monday through Friday).  This will drastically reduce the number of teaching days in schools in a country that already has too many public holidays.  Having kids stay at home for two days a week is bothersome for most parents, as it raises the risks of kids using screen time even more. Besides, unless the curriculum content and credit hours are significantly reduced, it is going to make it difficult for schools to manage the academic calendar.

Look before you leap

When it comes to pedagogy, there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Students have different aptitudes and learning abilities—low, medium and high. While some learn by memorisation, others learn better if they are given creative tasks, a little bit of persuasion, some kind words, and encouraging remarks work well with others.  Some others have to be forced, or even chastised, to get the tasks done. What works best with one type may prove to be useless with others.

The education ministry must have looked into different aspects and assessed the weaknesses and strengths of the existing system before devising the new policies they are trying to implement.  There is no doubt that we need a robust school system that allows children to learn with fun and achieve desired outcomes. For that, we have to lay down the basic infrastructure– revising the curriculum, investing in teacher education, providing schools with required resources and materials, among many other things.  School education is a tripartite collaboration. Students follow the guidelines of teachers, parents rely on teachers for learning outcomes of their children and expect schools to keep the students engaged in studies. Teachers rely on policies formulated by the government. A policy, however progressive and impressive in paper, will amount to nothing if it does not align with the ground realities and contribute to visible, measurable learning outcomes of the students. 

(The author is a journalist and educator based in Kathmandu.)