Poverty Alleviation
Institutionalised Effort Vs. Political Commitment

By Uttam Maharjan

THE current Ninth Plan (2053-2058) is in the last year of operation. One of the broad thrusts of the plan is to reduce poverty from 42 per cent to 32 per cent. In fact, poverty alleviation has been accentuated more aggressively since the Eighth Plan. At the beginning of the plan, 49 per cent of the Nepalese people were estimated to be living below the poverty line. In five years’ time, the poverty rate came down to 42 per cent – a positive achievement of the plan but not a matter of complacency.

Poverty is a multi-dimensional phenomenon interlinked with unemployment, illiteracy and poor infrastructure development in such sectors as agriculture, industry, tourism, transport and service. As over 81 per cent of the people are involved in agriculture and over 90 per cent of the people live in the rural areas, poverty may be considered a rural phenomenon. Therefore, it is evident that as long as the lot of the rural poor people cannot be improved, poverty alleviation will remain a far cry for many years to come.

Poverty and unemployment are directly related to each other. The rate of unemployment in Nepal is estimated at 4.9 per cent, with semi-unemployment being as high as 47 per cent. The current Ninth Plan aims at reducing unemployment to 3 per cent and semi-unemployment to 10 per cent in 20 years’ time. To achieve this far-sighted target, the government should stress, inter alia, the need for vocational and skill development training among the youths of the country, which will definitely create self-employment opportunities.

Similarly, the government should priorities small-scale and cottage industries in the rural areas so that the farmers may utilise their time in the off season. For such industries to prosper, micro-credit may be arranged for through regional rural banks, credit cooperatives and other financial institutions at a low rate of interest.

The Ninth Plan aims at notching up a 6 per cent economic growth rate. For this, the plan has put stress on agriculture, forestry, hydropower, international trade, industry, tourism, manufacturing, transport, service and other sectors. Further, it has emphasised the development of human resources and physical infrastructures.

Balanced regional development is not a new concept in Nepal’s development planning. The segmentation of the country into five development regions, together with the establishment of a regional rural development bank in each region, bears witness to the endeavours at reaching the fruits of development to each development region on an equal footing. This concept of balanced development would certainly give rise to equitable social justice.

For equitable social justice to be in place, the various ethnic communities scattered throughout the country must be brought into the mainstream of national development. Keeping this fact in mind, the Ninth Plan has paid attention to the development of backward areas and improvement of the lot of the downtrodden, the weak strata of society. In actual fact, so long as such downtrodden people cannot be resolved from impoverishment, the poverty eradication programmes cannot be considered a success.

The Ninth Plan has invisioned the initiation of anti-poverty programmes by bifurcating the poverty-stricken people into two groups: poor and extremely poor. It is estimated that the extremely poor people constitute 17.1 per cent of the total population of the country. Besides, the plan has supplemented such programmes as women’s empowerment, skill development, micro-credit and income–generating programmes. All these programmes have been geared up towards poverty alleviation.

Furthermore, the plan has made institutional provision for the Poverty Alleviation Commission, Poverty Alleviation Fund and Poverty Alleviation Monitoring System.

However, although the provisions made in the plan for the eradication of poverty are worthwhile, its mid-term review (for the first three years) has indicated that the target of reducing poverty to 32 per cent will not materialise as is evident from the fact that during the review period the poverty rate was found to be 38 per cent and the economic growth rate 4.8 per cent. This will certainly affect the long-term target of drastically reducing poverty to 14 per cent in 20 years’ time. To attain this objective, economic growth will have to be accelerated aggressively and poverty alleviation programmes pursued on a war footing.

The budget for the current fiscal year has envisioned the alleviation of poverty by reinvigorating the open market financial reform policies adopted in the past with a view to establishing a healthy and robust economy.

The budget also aims at optimally utilising the scarce resources in a productive manner, thus maintaining sustainable economic growth. The most important factor is that the benefits arising out of this growth will be equitably distributed among the people, targeting such benefits at the poor sections of society.

Besides, the budget has prioritised the creation of self-employment opportunities for the underprivileged through the Rural Self-Dependence Fund. The budget has also provided for expanding small farmers cooperatives as they have proved to be effective in mobilising savings from and extending micro-credit to the farmers at large.

There is also a budgetary arrangement for transforming the traditional agricultural sector so as to improve the lot of the marginal farmers. Agriculture is, in effect, the mainstay of the national economy. The development of this sector would lead to development in other sectors like business and industry.

There are several anti-poverty programmes in operation in the country at present. These programmes are so scattered that coordination among them is glaringly lacking. This has given rise to duplication/overlapping of such programmes in certain areas. Besides, lack of an effective follow-up and monitoring mechanism has adversely affected the functioning of the programmes. The budget has, therefore, made provision for bringing such programmes under the umbrella of the Poverty Alleviation Fund to make them more effective.

The Tenth Plan is beginning from the next fiscal year. And poverty alleviation will, no doubt, occupy centre stage in the plan. To attain the goal of reducing poverty to 14 per cent in 20 years’ time, the past shortcomings should be rectified and the pro-poor programmes pursued vigorously. The recently completed National Census may provide useful inputs for the formulation of the Tenth Plan. However, a strong political commitment on the part of the government, apart from cooperation from all sectors, is essential for the alleviation of poverty.

Education System Needs Careful Scrutiny

By Mohan K.C.

SCHOOL Leaving Certificate Examinations have always retained the importance in the minds of the people. Perhaps no other examination receives so much public attention. It is only the SLC and Higher Secondary results that get published in detail in Gorkhapatra daily. This itself signifies that in the eyes of the people SLC is something that is a most important hurdle to be crossed.

The examinees sitting for the examination have a mission in life and that is to successfully pass it. So, it is not surprising that failure is hard to digest. Yet, the fact remains that not even 50 per cent of the students who take the SLC examinations get through it. This is the reality despite the huge investment made by the government on education. Barring a number of private and boarding schools, very few government schools come up with encouraging results.

The high failure rate speaks for the dismal track record of the educational system in the country. This year barely 32 per cent of the students managed to overcome the barrier. This still leaves 68 per cent of the students to try their luck next year. The fall by over 13 per cent as compared to last year is not something that can be taken lightly.

Considering the fact there were over 200,000 students who had appeared for the SLC examinations, the pass percentage is disappointing. The time has come to evaluate the whole educational system itself. There is no room for complacency. When the pass rate should have been over 80 per cent, the record here is something that is heavy on the chest.

It is unfortunate that many schools have drawn a nil in the results. This is an issue that merits serious attention. There are some schools who are resting on the laurels of achieving 100 per cent pass rate, but they are very few in number.

Many reasons have been pointed out for the miserable pass rate. One among them, as pointed out by a concerned official, is the new curriculum for which this was the first time. But a new syllabus does not mean that there are more failures. Something is wrong with the way school education is imparted. A syllabus is born out of the need to adjust education with the changing times. If the curriculum had been above the standard of secondary education, it would not have been implemented.

Some have even gone to the extent of saying that the new methodology for the examination of answer papers might have something to do with the poor result. But where does it all start? The curriculum is designed, teaching and learning activities at school take place accordingly and there is someone else to set question papers and the teachers from all over the country evaluate the answer sheets. This is enough to show that coordination among the various stages is not maintained properly which leads to such a sad state.

Strictness at examination centres is essential together with marking the papers. But it is open knowledge that in a number of examination centres, fair play is something unheard of. There are news reports that depict the premises of some examination centres as resembling a fish market. There are some teachers and even parents who go to the extent of passing chits to those giving the exam. This goes on to show that uniformity in maintaining the dignity of the examination is not seen in every centre. There may be many reasons for laxity. But, foremost among them is the prestige that is earned by passing the "iron gate".

There may be complaints that this time the course was new and compact which did not make it possible for many schools to complete the prescribed courses. Unless the schools follow a rigid programme to see that not only the courses are completed, the result may be disastrous as this year. Completing the course is the first criteria but if the students do not follow it then there’s no benefit. The two aspects must go side by side.

The competency of most of the teachers is satisfactory but a sense of sincerity and commitment must also be there. A school’s prestige depends on how good it is at imparting education to the students. An exorbitant fee structure is not a guarantee of good education. The students must be motivated to give their best. This also applies for the teachers.

On the part of parents, very few take interest on how the children are studying. The interaction with school teachers is essential. This is all the more true in the rural parts of the country where parents hardly have time or knowledge to monitor the educational activities of their children. This is a drawback in a poor country like ours where eking out a living eats up a considerable amount of time. Even in urban setting, there are parents who not aware of how their children are faring in school. Unless the parents and teachers as well take interest in the education of the children no much can be achieved.

This year’s low pass percentage must be a lesson for all specially the educationists, parents and the people in general for a review of the whole educational system. Following this strategies must be devised so that the investment, time and energy spent on school education gives adequate returns.