Timely Directive

PRIME MINISTER Girija Prasad Koirala, speaking at a function the other day, said that top priority has been given to education and that the government, with the desire to advance educational system along new lines, has directed the Education Ministry to make a study towards opening technical schools in the villages so as to provide employment opportunities to the unemployed. Education has been universally recognised as one of the fundamental pre-requisites for any nation if it wants to keep pace with the development taking place in other countries and regions. It is for this reason that all nations always make it their duty to allocate substantial allocations for the education sector every year. And, when the need arises, to effect necessary changes in the education sector so that the knowledge, skills and expertise imparted to the citizens will enable them to continuously contribute their mite to the national development endeavours. As far as budgetary allocations to the education sector by the government is concerned, there is hardly any room for the people and the educational institutes to be dissatisfied. Especially when the nation itself is resource-strapped and the government, apart from being perennial cash-crunched, is always having to meet the yearly rising yet competing needs of the people with the limited resources at hand. Yet, even with these problems facing the nation and the government, timely changes had been effected in the education sector by the government. And there is no reason why such a process will not continue even in the future too.

The current trend being noticed in the education sector throughout the world seems to be towards specialisation in different fields of knowledge, skills and expertise. One likely reason for this trend could be the breathtaking scientific and technological achievements made during the last 100 years and which, in turn, have opened up vast vistas of opportunities in the economic, commercial and industrial fronts. As far as imparting technical-oriented education is concerned, Nepal has not be lagging too far behind other nations. For, Nepal was one of the very few nations to opt for technical and skill-based education right from the school level over two decades ago. However, its least developed nation status and its yearly rising population of the educated unemployed do suggest that a thorough review of the education being presently imparted to the school and college-level students is in order. The government’s recent directive to the Education Ministry, therefore, should be lauded in that it does indicate that it is in tune with the advancements in the world’s education sector and trying to keep pace with them.

Committees For Kamaiyas

THE government, as per a news report, has constituted a nine-member central-level coordination and monitoring committee under the chairmanship of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Development Ram Chandra Poudel for the identification and rehabilitation of the recently freed bonded labourers commonly called Kamaiyas. Similarly, a ll-member district-level coordination and monitoring committee has been formed under the chairmanship of the DDC Chairman in order to identify and rehabilitate the freed bonded labourers. The districts of Dang, Banke, Bardia, Kailali and Kanchanpur have been designated as the working areas of the central and district level committees with a term of two months each. The recent proclamation of the government to free the thousands of Kamaiyas from their age-old debts and bondage was, by all counts, a historic decision. As such, its efforts to translate its pledge to establish social justice in the country by freeing the Kamaiyas from their centuries-old bondage was widely acclaimed by all. The formation of the central and district level committees is yet another feather in the government’s cap in that it showed its firm determination to follow up its momentous decision—herein, to rehabilitate the freed bonded labourers so that they too could live a life of dignity in the society.

Now that the Kamaiyas are free citizens, they are in an urgent need of appropriate programmes to re-integrate them back in the national mainstream. However, considering the limited resources with the government and the concerned line ministries, fulfilling this aspect could be a Herculean task. Nevertheless, the judicious and optimal utilisation of even the scarce resources at hand could still assist the government to bring about a sea-change in the abject and exploited lives of the freed Kamaiyas. Towards this end, it looks to reason for the government, the concerned ministry and the two committees to do an in-depth study and analysis of the needs and aspirations of the freed bonded labourers. By doing so, they could chalk up immediate and long-term schemes for their uplift. And while they are at it, it would be in the fitness of things if they include the assorted INGOs and NGOs working to better the socio-economic status of the deprived persons and communities. With the combined endeavours of the two, there is every reason to hope for a speedy rehabilitation of the freed bonded labourers.