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Kathmandu Saturday December 22, 2001 Paush 07, 2058.
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Helping poor
This refers to news story titled "BPEP
mid-term review ends" dated December 21, 2001, TKP. The director general of the
Department of Education claimed that "there has been a remarkable achievement since
the government launched the Basic and Primary Education Programme." What he has said
is certainly correct and anyone involved in development projects claims so. He claimed
"the enrolment ratio improved by 42 percent" and even suggested that "the
programme would be decentralised".
However, the director general failed to
convince me in this context. Neither has he come up with specific measures, nor has he
cited any example that would improve the education system of this country qualitatively.
Donor agencies pour in money to improve our education system. These agencies know how poor
our social and educational institutions are. We would have not sought any external
assistance for the development of our social and educational institutions, if we had
realised the flaws in our system. We have followed two types of educational systems: the
state-run schools and individually run schools which mint money. The state-run schools
have poor infrastructure and a poor management system, while private schools maintain all
these things. But educational institutions are social organisations, thus cannot be owned
by individuals. State-run schools are not organised on the basis of ethnic community, nor
are they run by local bodies. Everything has been centralised in this country. Unless
these ill-equipped bureaucrats realise this fact and the poor lawmakers introduce laws to
decentralise the educational system, the donor agencies alone cannot improve the education
of this country. It is a waste of money rather than helping the poor to become literate.
Shailesh Shrestha
Kathmandu |
