Ensure rather than assure

The government’s announcement that it will provide a special incentive package for sportspersons winning gold medals in the eighth South Asian Federation (SAF) Games is indeed a welcome gesture that encourages better sports culture in the country. It is yet to be seen whether the "surprise package" that includes the lofty promise of a patch of land for each SAF gold medalist, among others, is really meant to be implemented. Besides, Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai’s usual style of talking figuratively, also makes one sceptical of the promise coming true. However, coming as it does on behalf of the government, the announcement of an incentive package for sportspersons no doubt deserves to be welcomed.

It is known to all that the country’s sports sector is reeling under a state of deprivation. Not only is the government spending quite negligible amounts on developing the ability of athletes, there is also utter lack of opportunities and exposure for our players. Sportspersons in other countries are treated with a good deal of financial and moral backing. But the case with us has been quite different. Here, athletes play their whole lives only to find themselves in a financially sorry state, as nothing or very little comes in return for their involvement and dedication in the field. This, coupled with the fact they also have their share of responsibility towards their family, makes the general condition of a Nepali sportsman even pitiable.

It is in this background that the present announcement of the incentive package is laudable. The plan to arrange for a special sports village by offering a piece of land to those players who made the country proud by winning gold medals in the SAF Games, the promise of ‘permanent jobs’ to gold medalists and ‘job priority’ for other medalists, special concession to all medal winners for road and air transportation, and telephone facilities at reduced rates are thus significant, provided they don’t prove to be mere verbal lollipops.

For now, at least, the initiative taken by various institutions to felicitate medal winning athletes ought to be taken with a positive note. For, this is bound to develop the culture of honouring players who
hold the nation’s head high at international events. At the same time, such steps also encourage skill-development among athletes. The result of the eighth SAF Games that fetched as many as 31 gold medals for the country was indeed indicative of the bright future of Nepal’s sports sector. But this is definitely not possible unless the government ensures — rather than assures — proper facilities for athletes. The measuring rod of the government’s seriousness in this matter would, therefore, be the manner in which the incentive package is implemented.

Role of IT in the new millennium

By Dr Jagadish Sharma

Whatsoever a Kingdom that may exist on this earth or in heaven is realized by means of intelligence alone; intelligence is hence my sole wealth.

So may have stated Bill Gates. And, rightly, so. But, no, the above quotation is the English translation of a verse from Anu-Geeta, dating back to more than five thousand years. Be that as it may, the statement underscores the fact that we have entered a millennium which is characterized as the new age of Information Technology (IT). Ramifications of this technology are being experienced by all of us in our everyday life and have indeed transformed the planet we live in into a Global Village.

The objective of the present article is to highlight IT’s potential for our political system and the nation as a whole. We are presently completing an entire decade of experimenting with multi-party system of democracy which is mainly characterized by parliamentary form of government and constitutional monarchy. Notwithstanding various evaluations made by scholars, politicians and laymen alike about its shortcomings and failings to deliver the desired results, there is simply no alternative to the present system and we must be unanimously determined to make it succeed. We alone can devise ways to do so.

We have a very close and special relationship with India which has been instrumental in influencing and shaping many of our sentiments and political developments. In course of such a relationship, we may have benefited a lot and/or at times incurred mutually inflicting damages as the recent hijack of an Indian Airlines flight. Be that as it may, we must mutually strive to promote positive benefits rather than be involved in recriminations.

India is presently striving to become a super knowledge power. It has made great strides in IT. The contribution Indians have made in this sector both nationally and internationally need not be overemphasized. There is not a single multinational agency that may not have tried to use Indian expertise in software development and other components of cybernetics. In consideration of all this and the Hindu cultural heritage of putting maximum premium on knowledge, as the opening quotation of the present article indicates, India is in fact destined to make great strides in IT developments both nationally as well as internationally.

For our own purposes, experiments that have been made by Indian states such as Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in their political developments recently are worth mentioning. Andhra chief Minister CB Naidu’s efforts in using computers in governance of Andhra Pradesh instead of resorting to populist slogans and programmes have already paid political dividends rich enough to inspire the chief minister of Karnataka to emulate the same exercise. As a matter of fact, Karnataka Chief Minister has his own web site and he goes through e-mails personally and redresses the problems of people in his state. In this way the representative government has been able to make it possible to deliver the in an underdeveloped country such as India.

Besides, such experiments have also the potential to transform the very nature of representative form of indirect democracy. The main problem of representative government, as Rousseau has pointed very succinctly, is that the representatives cease to feel and act as representatives of the people they are supposed to represent once they are elected. But in view of the problems entailed in operating direct democracy because of the large number of the voters and size of the constituency, there has been no alternative but to resort to representative type of democracy.

The recent developments IT has brought about in instant communication among millions of people may ultimately help to rectify the problem Rousseau has pinpointed in the representative system of democracy. It is not beyond the realm of possibility in this context to contemplate the operation of direct democracy itself instead of resorting to the system of representatives. If voters can instantly express their views on whatever has to be decided because of the advances made by IT, there may in fact be no need for the provision of having representatives to represent the views of voters. Whatever course the representative system of democracy may undergo eventually, there is no denying the fact that there exists at present a technology that facilitates direct relations between the government and the governed, which is in fact the real spirit and essence of democracy.

In view of the above stated analysis, there is no reason why similar experiments cannot be made in our own country. In order to do so, His Majesty’s Government will first have to accord top priority to the development of IT in the country. Landlocked, poor and illiterate as our country is with diverse topography, it is essential that we expand our IT facilities to every village and ward of our cities just as India is trying to do. The existence of satellites as a means of communications must be utilized to achieve the same. Once we develop our IT to encompass the entire Kingdom, there can be no objective that cannot be attained. We may in fact be able to bypass the entire age of the last millennium of industrialization and establish ourselves just like any other developed and civilized country in the world.

These days !

By Abhishek Parajuli

It was too grotesque to get back the change in Indian currency. I had bought some goods and got a five hundred Indian rupee note in change. "Hello mister. This is Nepal" was my curt remark. The salesman looked quite perplexed. "Nobody’s got any problem with IC sir" came his reply. It offended my pride. My pride of being a Nepali. My mind jumbled up with thoughts of taking pride in one’s own nation and nationality and putting up an effort to uplift its status. But my instantaneous reply was "Don’t you know the scandal of the Assistant Secretary at the Pakistani Embassy?". His expression changed. His eyes were admitting the fact that it’s no good to deal in foreign currencies. He still wouldn’t give up. He defiantly said, "Even our PM kneels down in front of the Indian government. How can we stay away from using IC?" I was convinced that our Prime Minister knelt down in front of the Indian government. I remembered the hijacking of the Indians Airlines airbus.

It was really very sorry for we Nepalese that without a single word of protest our Prime Minister admitted a lapse of security at Tribhuvan International Airport. However, I was still not convinced about using Indian currency. "Our PM gave up doesn’t mean everybody else has to. We must be aware of and must stand up for our sovereignty." He seemed to be a bit skeptical to this idea. I felt he was giving scant attention to Nepal and its pride. Police have caught a diplomat red-handed dealing with fake Indian currency, and here is a salesman at a department store who doesn’t hesitate at all to deal in Indian currency.

Nepal’s image in the world arena as a tourist’s destination went down but our Prime Minister still has the courage to carry all the blame (for the highjack) by himself without pointing a finger at other’s faults. Nepalis in general are having the worst nightmares these days. The two South Asian giants are clashing over territory and a Nepali civilian is blamed as a notorious smuggler and a terrorist. What the blazes is happening against us Nepalese! With much of these offensive thoughts, my eyes lit up and my ears went red.

Reading the anger in my face the salesman tried to placate me. "Yes, you love Nepal. Accept this NC then," he said taking out the money from the drawer. His reluctance to offer Nepalese currency at first created a doubt in my mind. I immediately asked him a straight forward question. "I don’t think you’re involved into dealing with the fake IC?" he raised his eyes to look at me in the middle of his counting and said.

"Come on. I’ve got a Nepali citizenship card. I’m a Nepali after all." I didn’t answer and it was comprehensible that I didn’t accept his nationality for his attitudes weren’t Nepali.

Though we settled on friendly terms after I got the change in Nepalese currency, he reminded me of so many problems I ought to face being a true Nepali. It is for sure many Nepali citizenship card holders will turn to be true Nepalese if they can expect the powers that be at Singha Durbar to deliver the goods.

Social studies : Interdisciplinary approach

By Bijay Kumar Rauniyar

There was much hue and cry when the professors of Tribhuvan University raised their pens to author and edit books for PCL and Three Year Diploma Courses as per the new syllabus. Many frowned at the way they departed from the beaten track and set a new path to set aright the pedagogic and prescriptive way of teaching language and literature. First came Link English which was looked down upon as kids’ English. Then came the avalanche of books which included materials from war to politics, culture to gender equality, trade to tourism. Even the names suggested volumes within- Magic of Words, The Heritage of Words, Adventures in English, Mosaic, Essays on the Creation of Knowledge, Creative Delights and so on. The major approach was interdisciplinary.

Earlier, at the Central Department of English, the professors convened their counterparts from other central departments to form a course on American studies, which is another name for interdisciplinary studies and nothing exclusively American. It tried to present a critique of the tunnelled view and promote a multidimensional prismatic view. But the monocles would not budge from their parochial status quo. They connived with their own "lopsided approach" and objected to the "high-handedness" of the "English" Department and the bulk of the "English" course content. Ironically, these pedagogues claim to lead the nation into the new millennium. Series of seminars and workshops were held to acquaint new professors and professors-to-be with the contents of the so called "far-fetched" "non-teachable" materials. In one seminar, diehard comrades betrayed their ignorance of the original Communist Manifesto which is included in the Essays on the Creation of Knowledge.

Another major change took place in the school curricula, especially in Social Studies. It included facts from different fields and wove a garland to laurel the new generation so that it could weave through the vicissitudes of the kaleidoscopic world. While facts of classical and so far inseparable disciplines like History and Geography could not be altered, other individual subjects were dealt with separately. Broader subjects like sociology, anthropology, religion, human rights, economics and environment, international understanding and peace, were touched upon. These required both students and teachers and general readers to delve deeper on their own. The message has been clear since Darwin’s era- "Only the fittest can survive. The poorly adapted perish."

Medical doctors having highest degrees like FRCS or FRCP keep updating their knowledge through CME (Continued Medical Education). Lawyers do so by browsing through precedents (nazirs). But most of the founders of the 10+2 schools cannot afford to run the Humanities and Social Sciences stream as it involves the risk of hiring more teachers for more optional subjects.

The 1960s saw a strong advocacy in the West of prescribing, rather than proscribing, science with enough dosage of humanities. Accordingly, scientists are given a crash course on humanities. The inclusion of Nepal Parichaya in almost all faculties is informed with the aim of equipping budding scholars with basic information about different aspects of Nepal and Nepalese society. The inclusion of Community Medicine in medical syllabi testifies the need to acquaint oneself with the society and the whole gamut of social problems. Indeed, society is a vast canvas where colours run riot and do and undo miracles. It is another matter that the majority ignore these papers and secure stigmatic marks. Greater social stigma awaits them when they cut a sorry figure because of their inability to figure out solutions to many social problems.

The government’s decision to make Social Studies a compulsory subject up to the Secondary (SLC) Level enthused many writers and publishers to come up with English editions of the Nepali ones. While Social Studies for Lower Secondary Level (Grades 6-8) still followed the safe track, that for Secondary Schools left all agape and flabbergasted. The Double Page Spread Approach with an aim to help students learn by doing rather than by reading caught the spoon-fed students and note-giving teachers napping and put them on the task of matter hunting. The poor terrestrials, rather frogs inside the well could not afford to be amphibians, let alone explore the extraterrestrials in an age when humanity is striving hard to be multi-planetary. For them the earlier course was easier. One could teach, it just by reading and explaining the lines. What they explained and how, were always a matter of scrutiny. It is now also a matter of dal roti (livelihood, "sustenance farming!") for the teachers and jaso taso pas garnu (pass by hook or crook) for their students. Jab pundit hi hopeless to jajman kya karega? (When the priests are hopeless, think of the lot of the hosts?) was the feeling poured by a Hindi poetaster. Both have a right to eke out their earning much as the squatters have a right to occupy any land. So the government should think of establishing an ayog (commission) like Sukumbasi Ayog to preserve and promote their (birth) right. Of course, reading is easier than doing or practising things into reality. Easier said than done.

One can read by his or her bed. But doing, requires scratching one’s head. The contents and the questions of the HMG textbooks are not really designed in the air. They are prepared by an expert team from within the country and abroad. On the surface, they seem to be lacking adequate information but it’s better to be "jack of all trades but master of only one or none." And as the writers-compilers clearly outline their method, they require the teachers and students to do much more than they are used to. They are like a sugar-coated capsule which requires one to swallow the bitterness within to cure his or her ills. Only by bleeding through thorns can one pluck the red blooming rose.

Of course, even God didn’t create all the comforts for our erring forefathers when He hurled them down on to the earth. But their children created even what was unimaginable during the heyday of Creation. The HMG textbooks are quite becoming to the new generation confronting the challenge of the new age. It discourages routine reproduction and promotes creative writing so far confined to the litterateurs and the elite. It is not supposed to make its castles in the air. It is given solid ground to stand upon, but it has to dig the ground itself and lay a more solid foundation before it gives way.

Back in 1980s, I was asked by my senior colleagues to do them a favour by taking up Social Studies as it required special competence (linguistic, literacy, etc) to teach the subject. A decade later, in the 1990s, I penned the experience by writing a series of textbooks of Social Studies and contributing to other books on the same and other subjects. Frequent seminars and workshops and professional involvement with the Linguistic Society of Nepal (LSN), Literary Association of Nepal (LAN), Nepal English Language Teachers’ Association (NELTA), Women Studies Programme at Padma Kanya Campus, American Reference Centre, USIS, the British Council, American Studies Research Centre (ASRC) and Centre for English and Other Foreign Languages (CIEFL), Hyderabad, and above all, Central Department of English, enhanced whatever competence I possessed or not. What I feel at present is the painful dearth of fully trained and prepared teachers to give and take lessons of Social Studies. In most cases, some teachers with fluency in English and some degree stating his or her proficiency in History or Geography is assigned the herculean task. It’s high time that the Curriculum Development Centre, under the aegis of Ministry of Education, collaborate with the said institutions as well as Overseas Development Agency (ODA), Asian Bank and World Bank and conduct intensive teachers’ training and Train the Trainer (TROT) programmes to accomplish the so far onerous job and inculcate in the future fathers the most coveted "social competence."