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| Kathmandu, Saturday April 27, 2002 Baishakh 14, 2059. |
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Education for All : Status and
strategies
By DR KEDAR NATH SHRESTHA
Since the days of Karachi Plan of the 1960s
which provided a framework on the free and compulsory primary education for the countries
of Asian region to the 1990s when global concern for the limited success in achieving
universal enrollment in primary school, much has taken place in Nepal in the expansion of
the facility of primary education. Keeping in view the status of primary education in
developing countries, the world conference on Education for All (EFA) (Jomtien, March,
1990) provided a new expanded vision for primary education which discarded the earlier
emphasis on quantitative expansion, Nepal was one of the signatories of the World
Declaration on EFA.
The World Declaration for EFA recommended goals
and targets in six dimensions, namely expansion of early childhood and development
activities, universal access to and completion of primary education by 2000, improvement
in the learning achievement, reduction of adult literacy rate to one-half its 1990 level
by 2000, increased acquisition of basic skills and values required for letter living and
use of all forms of modern and traditional communication media. The EFA document argued
with evidence that education of any kind and particularly primary education can help
families earn higher incomes and better use of their earnings through improved consumptive
choices and improve household management. Agencies like the World Bank, the Asian
Development Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO, declared their commitments to provide technical and
financial support for developing countries while achieving the EFA goal and target.
Numerous strategies were adopted and programmes
(projects) were implemented in Nepal during the 1990s in response to the commitment to the
World Declaration on EFA. At the Ministry of Education (MOE) level, a Plan of Action was
prepared to implement various programmes, which were based on the policy and strategies
specified in the EFA document produced by the World Conference. A ten-year Master Plan on
Basic and Primary Education was prepared which included an analysis of the existing status
and programmes for immediate implementation (BPEP, Master Plan, 1992). The Eighth and
Ninth Development Plan reflected the MOE’s commitment to raise the enrollment level
in primary education with an emphasis on raising the achievement level of students. A
major Basic and Primary Education Project (BPEP) (1992-97) was implemented with the
financial assistance of the World Bank (IDA), DANIDA and UNICEF. BPEP was another
programme implemented mainly to improve the quality and intake capacity on
in-service teachers training for primary school teachers.
Nepal achieved tremendous development and
improvement in this area during the 1990s. An assessment conducted in1997 indicated a
satisfactory progress in several areas of primary education. Within five years, the number
of primary schools increased from 18,694 (1991) to 23,284 (1996). Similarly, the primary
school enrollment also increased from 3812,611 (1991) to 4773,674 (1996). The GER in
primary level increased from 69 (1990) to 117 (1997). About 18,000 primary school teachers
were provided 2.5 months training. Besides, improvement of physical facilities of schools,
scholarship for girl students of primary schools, improvement and development of teaching
learning materials, short-term recurrent teacher training programmes have been some of the
major activities during the 1990s.
The World Education Forum on EFA, held in Dakar,
Senegal in April 2000 reviewed the progress of the decade-long EFA campaign initiated by
the World Conference on Education held in Jomtien in1990. The Dakar Conference adopted the
Dakar Framework for Action, which lists six major EFA goals to be achieved by 2015. The
framework emphasised on collective commitments nationally and internationally ensures that
no country is left behind because of the lack of technical capacity or resource.
The Dakar Framework for Action endorsed almost
all the six goals and targets propounded by the World Conference on EFA in 1990 with some
modification. Dakar extended the target for universal enrollment in basic education from
2000 to 2015, provided realistic adult literacy target just to improve by 50 percent from
the status in 2000, and eliminate the enrollment disparity between boys and girls
(including children from disadvantaged group).
BPE-I and BPEP-II have been the two major
projects (programmes) which included numerous components that are directly related to the
goals and targets proposed by the Dakar Framework. Following are some plans and programmes
related to Jomtien and Dakar Framework for Action.
- The Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES)
has developed programmes and implemented activities in the area of Early Childhood
Development and Education (ECDE). The recent 7th Amendment of the Education Act authorised
the government to provide financial support to the Early Childhood Development Centres.
MOES has also set a tentative target of 80 percent GER in ECD by 2015. About Rs 23 crores
has been allocated for ECD in BPEP-II.
- The Plan of Action prepared for EFA has set
the target of 100 percent enrollment by the year 2015 supported by all activities that
would help achieve this goal. The government’s commitment to achieve the universal
enrollment has started from the 7th Development Plan and it is proposed to continue until
the 11th Plan to achieve this goal. The BPEP-II has allocated Rs 385 crores for the
expansion of access and improving the retention in primary schools.
- BPEP-II has numerous activities under
implementation to raise the quality of primary education. Improvement of teaching-learning
situation in schools through improved curriculum, curricular materials, teacher training
are some of the BPEP-II strategies. There is an allocation of about Rs 364 crores in BPEP
II to achieve the quality goal in primary education.
- To improve equitable access to children and
youth has remained the pronounced policy of the government that is reflected in the
programmes related to primary, lower secondary and secondary education. The education
statistics indicate the easy availability of the schooling facilities for children at
least up to the age of 14. Efforts are being made to provide appropriate life-skill in the
school education.
- Raising literacy rate has been provided
importance in the educational programmes after the World Declaration on EFA. Today, MOES
has Non-formal Education Centre within its management structure with Non-formal Education
Council to guide the operation. Besides the traditional 6-months literacy training
programme, NFEC is implementing three-year condensed primary school curriculum for those
children who are left out during their primary school age and special literacy programme
for girls and women. PBEP-II has allocated about Rs 76 crores in addition to the regular
budget to achieve the escalated literacy target.
- Special programmes for girls, additional
support for girl children to help them attend schools, scholarship programmes for girls,
teacher training priority and quota in the appointment of primary school teachers are some
programmes to eliminate the gap in the enrollment between the boys and the girls in
primary schools during the past ten years. Besides the regular financial support, BPEP-II
has allocated Rs 5.6 crore for the promotion of girls education.
- Improvement of the quality of primary
education has remained priority goals during the 1990s. BPEPs have adopted three
strategies to achieve this goal: (1) reform in curriculum and evaluation system, (2)
improve teaching - learning situation in the classroom, and (3) improve teachers’
skill to help children’s effective learning.
- After the Dakar meeting, The government
prepared a tentative National Plan of Action to achieve the six major goals. A National
EFA Forum has been established with tasks like advocacy, resource mobilisation, monitoring
and sharing of EFA related information. Six thematic groups on each of the Dakar goals
have been appointed. Each group has initiated major studies. The National Plan of Action
for EFA will be finalised on the basis of the findings of these studies and other
national, regional and local consultation meetings.
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