Umesh Raj Regmi

Public education is the sine qua non of a country’s prosperity and development. And, Nepal’s public education has been enveloped with political, financial and quality pressure for the last few decades. The gap between private and public education in the country is unbridging due to some push factors in private schools. But it is not true that private schools are superior in providing quality education than public schools. Hence, public education mirrors the status of a country in different functions.
In the name of making public education better, the budget announcement for the fiscal year 2020-21 has provisioned all secondary level private schools have to take responsibility of at least one public school for improving their academic conditions. It means private secondary schools, as part of social responsibility, needs to support public schools by providing them with educational infrastructure and uplifting their educational quality. However, the provision is debatable and needs further clarity.
The budget announcement reflects that private schools are of higher rank than public schools, though many community schools are imparting quality education and they are really role model for community. Speaking critically, the plan seems to promote private schools, which is against the Constitution of Nepal. The constitution clearly states the education up to secondary level is the responsibility of the state, and private sector’s investment in education should be service-oriented. Similarly, private schools can't bear the burden of overhauling Nepal's public education system. The budget statement is not welcomed by the private school organisations like PABSON and N-PABSON.
Many private schools across the country are going to face economic crisis due to the COVID-19, and they won’t be in a position to support public schools in reality. On the other hand, private secondary schools are mostly in urban and semi-urban areas, and they cannot facilitate the public schools in rural settings. Many public schools in the country have better infrastructure and trained teachers than that of private schools. In response to the budget in education, the Minister for Education, Science and Technology has not accepted some points as the recommended plans of the ministry. This means that the changes in education budget are not the institutionalised decisions, and will be difficult to implement. Private schools cover to a relatively smaller chunk of population in comparison to public ones. Of the total school students in Nepal, around 80 per cent study in public schools. In number, there are only 6,687 private schools while the number of public schools stands at 35,520 across the country. How can this sheer numerical difference be narrowed if the provision is implemented? The election manifesto of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) stressed allocation of 20 per cent of the total budget in education, but it has reached hardly 11.64 per cent for the fiscal year 2020-21. The public education is neglected in its true spirit and the tailored plan and policies cannot improve the quality of education for the new generation.
The globally committed programmes like Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) put pressure on the country to fulfill the requirements of public education. But countries like Nepal are not capable of meeting them, hence privatisation in education prevails. The private education is exclusively funded by parents, and the governing bodies do not regulate their fee structures. Private schools, in a way, have challenged the country’s capacity to deliver equitable education based on social justice.
Education of a country is meant to be holistic with no private-public counterparts, but private institutions in Nepal claim that they are the ones to provide quality education. The measurement of quality is seen in terms of pass percentage and core grades in final exams. The medium of instruction and communication has been one of the main push factors of private education.
In private schools, pupils and teachers are encouraged to speak in English, while in the public schools, Nepali is widely used. Little resources, especially in the rural areas, are a distressing factor of public education. Most notably, parental pressure on public schools is lower because parents of private schools have a much greater stake in their children’s education. But the privatisation of education in Nepal has resulted in high tuition fees, large class sizes, English-driven thought and less qualified teachers. The motive of public education owned by the state is different from the private one, and responsibility of improving the public schools won’t be justified without an intact intervention of the government.
There is extreme need of concrete school funding policy with benchmarks of quality assurance and accreditation to be regulated by the three-tier government in coordination. It is highly recommended to have an effective team work between and among governing bodies, teachers, management committee, parents and education activists to strengthen the public education. Education service providers and other stakeholders should follow cost-effective measures honestly. Instead of blanket approach of resource distribution like in students’ scholarship and other grants to schools, there has to be bracket approach with focus on target groups and their real needs.
While formulating the budget, the fundamental rights of children to education should be well taken care of. The volume of education budget has to be more than 15 per cent of the total budget for the initiation of new programmes at public schools. Parents and local stakeholders should be encouraged to explore innovative ideas for alternative sources of funding for school development. The deployment of teachers, merging, upgrading and downsising the schools need to be planned in consultation with experts and local leaders.

(Regmi is associated with Nepal Youth Foundation. umesh_regmi71@yahoo.com)