Focus on effective implementation of early childhood scheme

By Chandika Dawadi

KATHMANDU, March 20 A well-planned and effectively implemented Early Childhood Development (ECD) programme not only contributes to the all-round development of children but it also has a profound influence on children’s long-term educational performance, say experts on ECD programme.

‘’Children have the right to protection and normal development in a healthy and caring environment to attain their potential," says Abhiyan Jung Rana, ECD project officer of UNICEF, Nepal. "So the attention has to be focused on the child’s home and family."

Although Nepal has signed the UN Child Right Convention in 1989, the government does not have any specific national level policy on the ECD programme. According to Rana, "The philosophy of ECD has basically been ignored in Nepal."

"Various NGOs, INGOs and private sectors have shown keen interest on the ECD programme but lack of a proper policy on the part of the Ministry of Education and Sports has barred children from drawing maximum advantage from the programme", Rana adds.

"The future of our country lies in the wellbeing of the present-day children— bringing them up in a healthy manner and imparting them good education," says Dr. Kishor Shrestha, expert at the Research Centre for Educational Innovation and Development (CERID).

"But the concept of ECD has not been developed properly in Nepal due to the lack of awareness among parents, teachers and the community at large," Dr Shrestha says. "The government has a weak mechanism in place to supervise and monitor. Low-level human resource, lack of training facilities and systematic programme on ECD has eclipsed this concept."

The officials at the Ministry of Education and Sports, however, deny such charges as saying they are baseless complaints. "It is nothing more than a mere blame," says Ram Balak Singh, deputy director of the Department of Education. He claims that the Department of Education has been running 3,000 ECD centres in 42 districts under Basic and Primary Education Project (BPEP). "The Department of Education has a plan to establish 10,000 ECD centres in various districts in the upcoming Tenth Five Year Plan," officials at the Department of Education said. The Department claimed that it had already invested Rs. 45 million to establish ECD centres under the BPEP every year.

‘’The government has to play a role of co-ordinator among ECD providers, planners and policy-makers," says Rana of the UNICEF. "It has to make a louder voice to enlarge the vision of ECD so that more people will be attracted to it."

UNICEF, Nepal has organised training programmes to uplift the awareness of people on ECD. It has similarly co-ordinated the Faculty of Education in preparing ECD courses for its Bachelor’s level and it independently runs 450 ECD centres in 15 districts, he adds.

UNICEF emphasises on decentralisation and community involvement in strengthening ECD programme in Nepal and it is ready to finance US $ 73 million for the next five-year- plan, UNICEF officials say.

The officials of the Department of Education think that the government wants to hand over this programme to the local community so that the goals of ECD will be realised.

"ECD centres should be established in each of the Village Development Committees (VCD) and the budget should be channelled by the social welfare fund of the VCD," says Mukti Singh Thakuri, section officer at the Department of Education.

ECD refers to the overall development of the children at the early age of up to five years and this concept encompasses broader meaning of holistic approach to the development of the children.

The history of ECD in Nepal can be traced back to 1948 when the first formal school for early childhood development education was established in the form of Montessori in Kathmandu.

At present, there are nearly 5,000 ECD centres in Nepal where only 8.1 percent children throughout the country get such facilities.

To ensure the rights of the child irrespective of caste, creed, culture, sex, politics and religion, the philosophy of ECD should be implemented, remark ECD experts.

New dust bins in Kathmandu streets

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 20 The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) had installed twenty-six large dust bins in the most sophisticated central business areas of the capital some six months ago. The result was that out of them, two were stolen, half of them were used to burn garbage and 70 percent had its chain and locks stolen in just two months.

A KMC official, however, says the trail of installing dust bins by the roadside is successful.

"Despite all this, I claim our trail in New Road to be successful if one observes the KMC’s past experience with dust bins," said Rajesh Manandhar, the chief of KMC Solid Waste Section, today.

Inspired by the "positive" results, KMC has replaced the old big bins with 26 small handy bins made of fibre glass in New Road.

KMC had installed the bins in New Road by the end of July and removed them by Janaury.

He said KMC installed 20 of the old big bins on the road stretching from Tripureshwor Eye Hospital to Teku Hospital street,Tuesday and has a plan to expand the facility in other areas of the capital soon.

"Those bins are meant only for pedestrians to dump anything they produce as they walk like packets, wrappers, peels or cigarette buts. For domestic waste, we have trucks that go round the city in the morning with sirens."

He said KMC is slowly gaining speed in collecting domestic garbabe in trucks directly from the public.

KMC has added 10 more trucks to collect garbage abandoning 6 old -fashioned tractors which were almost useless.

"KMC is still working to introduce more appropriate means of transport to collect the garbage," he said.

Politicians blamed for present state of nation

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 20 Chiefs of the Village Development Committees (VDCs) Tuesday blamed the politicians who have come to power after the 1990’s restoration of multi-party democracy for keeping the country mired into a long recession of poverty, hunger and political corruption giving birth to Maoist elements.

"The 12-year-long reign of the NC committed a cardinal sin: it let the social volcano erupt, giving rise to Maoist problem," said a VDC official asking for anonymity. ‘Still there are more troubling signs in the villages- place where most Maoists are born,’ he said.

"It’s the NC government that ruled the country for the last twelve years but failed to bring good governance which is also responsible for the Maoist problem," said MP Tarasama Yangya of CPN-UML. While Bhisma Pratap Thapa, Vice-President of National Association of VDCs In Nepal (NAVIN) said the government has become a fly trapped in a web. ‘It is struggling to come out of the crises it itself ignored,’ he said.

According to VDC officials, the government had, after the restoration of multiparty democracy, chose to ignore the development of the grass-root level people and centralised everything. Had the government acted like a safety valve instead of a barrier and honoured, recognised and listened to the grievances of the grass-root-level people, there would have been no Maoist problem.

"With lies, corruption and bribery, the post-1990 politicians did more harm than good to the nation giving birth to Maoist problem, which could have been averted if they had responded to their needs in villages and at the grass-root level", said Taranath Rananabhat, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

‘Emergency may help removing weapons possessed by the Maoists but not their attitude. It needs more detailed study for bringing them back to dialogue,’ Speaker Ranabhat told the gathering of VDC officials, Member of Parliaments and other high-ranking government officials at the third general meet of the NAVIN here in the Capital, Tuesday.

The officials accused the ministers and high-ranking bureaucrats of favouring the rich and squandering away nation’s resources for realising selfish interests or to impress voters just to garner more votes.

The officials, representing 75 districts and over 3000 Village Development Committees (VDCs) on Tuesday warned of an impending danger of regionalism and emerging religious organisations threatening to tear the country apart.

On the occasion, VDC officials from across the country raised serious concerns on the 50 percent budget cut down by the centre. They urged the central government to adopt a decentralised approach with a good governance mechanism to save the situation from reaching the crisis point.

‘The government is doing more harm to the future of the country already heading towards the state of anarchy by cutting down the budget,’ said Thapa, Vice-President of NAVIN adding that the budget cut has adversely affected the education of about 200,000 children currently enrolled in around 5000 public schools across the nation.

Talks on challenges of higher education

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 20 The government is annually spending 1.35 billion rupees on higher education but the quality of higher learning has seen a steady decline.

Minister of State for Education and Sports N.P. Saud said the country has a big challenge before it to provide jobs to thousands of graduates churned by the university every year.

Of the 1.35 billion rupees invested annually in higher education, 15 percent has been raised from internal resource mobilization. State Minister Saud also informed that the government is in favour of raising fees from the students during the tenth plan.

"Both the Houses of Parliament has approved raising fee from the students in improving the quality of education," State Minister Saud, who was speaking at a talk-programme organised by the Tribhuvan University Teachers’ Association in the capital, said.

He also informed that the government is currently working out a mechanism to fix permanently a school level examinations and phase out certificate level from the mainstream college education to improve the quality of higher education.

Reacting against the lecturers’ fury, Dr Navin Prakash Jung Shah, Vice-Chancellor of Tribhuvan University said the politics has become a culture in the colleges and universities after the advent of democracy in the country, which has been hindering the quality of education. "French students and professors never come out on the streets," he said citing how politics would affect higher studies.

Workshop for chemistry teachers begins today

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 20 The chemistry teachers of Nepal will be introduced the concept of Microscale Experimental Techniques at a workshop to be participated by professors from India and the United States, said Nepal Chemical Society (NCS) here today. The three-day workshop which begins tomorrow is expected to be attended by some 25 teachers.

The technique would basically involve conducting chemical experiments that are carried out in the chemistry syllabus of Nepal. However, it would be at a miniature level. The apparatus used would be smaller versions of those used in the laboratory currently and the quantity of the chemicals would be minimal.

This was disclosed at a programme jointly organised today by the NCS and the Central Department of Chemistry, TU to mark the 21st anniversary of the Society.

Speaking on the topic Professor Dr. S Kelkar of University of Pune, India who is engaged in teaching this technique to teachers in various countries since 1994 said, "By using microscale experimental techniques, the chemicals which are normally used for experiments, can be reduced to up to 1/10th, thus proving to be cost effective and safe."

He also said that since the technique carries numerous advantages, there has been a steady rise in the number of institutions opting for it. This method is being used in around 10 percent of American and a couple of Indian universities.

Nepal-India Joint Plant Science Forum to be set up

By Gopal Devkota

BIRGUNJ, March 20 The national seminar on ‘Recent Advances in Plant Science’ participated in by plant scientists of Nepal and India decided to establish Nepal - India Joint Plant Science Forum to increase the co-operation between two nations here today.

A committee consisting of 2 scientists each from the neighbouring nations has been formed to formulate the statute of the forum, according to Dr. Biswo Nath Prasad, the Chairperson of the organising committee in a press conference held after the 3-day long seminar.

"The decision is taken with the aim of jointly studying the usefulness of the plants found in the  region," said Prasad. "The forum will hold an exclusive bilateral convention in Birgunj
in 2004."

The seminar also decided to reform the syllabus of botany to make it useful to the community.

"We decided to reform the syllabus of the science which has experienced the new advances in recent years," said Prasad. "The new syllabus will focus on the theoretical knowledge and practical usefulness."

The seminar also decided to demand more investment in the study and research of the plant science with the respective government. The participants of the seminar also expressed the need of government’s action in taking the new conclusion and discovery to the rural level of the nation for the elimination of the poverty, according to Prasad.

The seminar was participated in by 105 scientists of Nepal and 20 scientists of India. A total of 94 working papers were presented in the seminar. Dr. PR Shakya of Nepal and Prof. HD Kumar of India presented the main working papers of the seminar, said Prasad.

"A collection of the working papers presented in the seminar will soon be published in the form of book," said Prasad.