Parents should monitor schools

Dr Lekh Nath Belbase is a prominent educationist who, for the last three decades, has been associated in giving the innovative and critical inputs especially for shaping the country’s education policy. A scholar who did his Ph.D. in vocational education decades back Dr Belbase has been a keen and active participant in development debates and blames faulty policies and their frail implementation for the sorry state of development in the country. Deeply involved in civil society movement for good governance and protection of public interest for last few years Dr Belbase served as a member of national Planning Commission in the past and took important assignments as advisor and consultants on behalf of the UN agencies and other organizations. Mr. Mukti Rijal talked the other day with Dr Belbase to get his views on the education sector that has received wider discussion and policy attention these days also due to the fact that the Parliament has passed the Seventh amendment Bill to the Education Act 2028 B.S recently. Excerpts of his views:

How you evaluate the pace of development in the country?

Candidly speaking, we have no long-term perspectives of development. It is characterized by ad hocism. We lack seriousness and objective thinking for development. Our development activities are a kind of doing patch works. I tend to compare our development activities with tarmac patches done on the arterial roads in the heart of the capital city. These patch works last for few months, not years.

As you have followed and often participated in the debates to reform education system in the country what reasons you think are responsible for leading the education sector to the messy state of affairs?

There are several reasons but the one I see critical is the prevailing system of examination. Unless there is reform in the examination system improvement in education is hard to achieve. Evaluation is also the part of teaching learning process. It should be an ongoing process. Evaluation should not be separated from the whole process. We trust teachers for educating our children but surprisingly fail to trust them to evaluate learning outcomes.

Moreover, I see serious flaw in the way we design policy, administer and implement. Curriculum designing, textbook production and conducting examination should form part of an integral process and need to be done under an umbrella organisation. Today there is no proper coordination among the units doing these crucial activities.

I would like to know your views about the falling quality of school education in the country. What problems you see in it?

I am against the full state control of education, I did air my views on it in the past, and I hold steadfast to it. Though the state has primary function to improve access to education from social justice point of view, it can not cater to the needs alone. Private sector has to come in. Moreover, state cannot manage the schools. Community initiatives and resources have to be harnessed and utilized for it. No school management body should be imposed by the District education office. Ultimately schools should be managed and monitored by parents whose children attend the schools. They have stakes and concerns to see how schools operate and educate children. Parents should be the constituents for the formation of school management body. Schools should be supervised and monitored by parents themselves.

There are accusations that the private schools are profit mongers and exploit parents. Even they were forced to close in some districts. What you think about how the private schools should be regulated?

I donot see any fault of the private school operators. They are delivering to the needs of the people. State has been able to generate demands but not able to cater to the needs. More than thirty percent of students study in private schools. There exists no proper and sound policy to regulate private schools Private sector participation is an imperative for quality education. It should not be restricted but better regulated. The School administration and supervision system is very weak. The District Education office has a nominal presence and it is not working to facilitate, enhance and regulate the schools.

Our education is more biased to the liberal arts and humanities. No employable skills are imparted to learners. What should be our approach to vocationalise the education?

I agree with you that the education should be useful and impart livelihood supporting skills and capacity to learners. However, vocationalising education at the school level that was tried out in the past was flawed. It is neither feasible nor productive. At the school level students should be orientated and imbued with basic learning needs and minimum social skills. Some ideas and notions of vocational education can be imparted at the school level only. They can be prepared for vocational education.

Several commissions have been formed to recommend changes and improvements in education. To what extent the reports have been used as inputs in policy designing and implementation?

Of the several task forces, I was fully involved in the commission that submitted its report in 2047B.S. If you go through the report you find several innovative recommendations provided in that report. The report emphasised on the community ownership of schools. It is very important.

One of the problems in education is said to be politicisation and teachers are used as political pawns. How can this be remedied?

Frankly speaking, teachers have been reduced to paid workers and public exchequer is bearing the load. Politics and education should be completely severed and political parties should commit that no teachers are recruited in their ranks. In the private schools, politics is avoided. That is the reason why quality is better maintained in private institutions. Public schools should learn from private entities in managing and administering the schools.

Addicts rise in border areas

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

Butwal, Nov. 11: The number of drug addicts are on the rise in the Nepal-India border areas of Sunauli and Nautanawa and it is mainly due to open trade of the narcotic drugs in India. Narcotics like nitrogen, phensydel and others, including injections, which are banned in Nepal, are easily found in Sunauli and Nauntawa.

Many Nepalese addicts especially youths to go across the border for buying or taking drugs. Some addicts are seen in lying unconscious on the streets because of the intoxication. It is said that people ranging from 15 to 50 years are involved in the consumption and smuggling of narcotic drugs in the area.

It is also said drug addicts from Pokhara, Kathmandu, Narayangadh, Palpa, Butwal and other parts of the country visit Sunauli for taking drugs.

Although the Narcotic Drug Control Act has strong provisions like seizing of properties of the addicts, but they are yet to be implemented effectively.

On request of the Rupandehi District Administration Office, India had banned the open sale of such drugs last year. The local administration had also taken action against the shopkeepers selling such drugs. But still drugs are found easily.

Last year, the sale and consumption of the narcotic drugs is believed to have decreased as compared to the previous years after a police patrolling team from the Butwal Area Police Office arrested a gang of smugglers dealing in narcotic drugs across the border. But things have returned back.

Sanitation education must to Dolakha people

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

Charikot, Nov. 11: Lack of awareness of sanitation and cleanliness has turned the public places in the rural areas of Dolakha district into cesspools now. Pastures, forests, rivers, roads and other public places, which are situated near the residential areas, have been used as ‘open toilets’.

Local intellectuals blame the lack of education and awareness. They say only few people living in the rural areas of the district use toilets. They rather prefer public places and open spaces.

Ram Bahadur Shivakoti, headmaster of Kalinag Secondary School at Sunkhani Village Development Committee (VDC), says that the public places are getting dirtier and environmentally polluted because of the people’s tendency to use the sites as toilets.

Sujan Regmi, a student of Gauri Shankar Campus, who hails from a remote village of Sundrawati, Charikot, says that the illiterate families are mostly found using the farms, paths and school grounds as toilets.

"In order to make them aware of sanitation, education is a must. For this, effective educational campaigns have to be launched in the rural areas," says Regmi.

Many non-formal education classes have been conducted in the district to eliminate illiteracy. But they are not so effective.

"It is the educated ones who have to tell the uneducated rural people to pay proper attention to sanitation," says Ram Das Shrestha, Ward Chairman of Bhimeshwar Municipality.

In Damauli, thousands of people have benefited after the completion of a suspension bridge over the Madi river linking Chintutar of Vyas Municipality with Kyamin VDC of Tanahun district.

The locals were facing inconvenience, especially during monsoon since there was no bridge over the river.

Students now take only about 20 minutes to reach their school in Kyamin Secondary School instead of two hours in the past.

Ram Prasad Shrestha, resident of Chintutar of Vyas Municipality, says that he used to be worried for his children because they have to walk for almost four hours commuting to and from school.. "Now there is no problem. The children can return home within a short time from school," he says.

The 135-meter suspension bridge has been constructed at a cost of about Rs. 2.78 million from the Tanahun District Development Committee (DDC), Local Development Ministry and Local Roads and Suspension Bridge Construction Committee. Out of it, the DDC provided Rs. 1.4 million.

Bridge construction hits life of majhis

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

Manthali, Nov. 11: With the construction of suspension bridges over various rivers in Ramechhap district, people belonging to Majhi community have started to face the problem of livelihood.

Sailing boats to ferry people and fishing have been the main sources of income for the Majhi people, who have been living on the banks of the rivers for years. In Ramechhap alone, the population of this group is about 7,000.

Majhis used to be seen sailing boats on the Tamakoshi, Sunkoshi and Likhu rivers in the span of every one or two kilometers in the past. But now such people are hardly seen as more than 40 bridges have been constructed over different rivers in the district during the last five years.

The major ferry stops of the district include Dhaneghat, Nabughat, Tokselghat, Manthalighat and Benighat.

At present, these people do not have any job. Majhis say that they need jobs to support to their families.

"In the past, we used to ferry people and we would collect both crops as well as cash for the services we delivered. But now, there are very few people who cross the river by ferry," says Budhe Majhi of Dhaneghat.

Another 70-year-old Kale Majhi recalls how he used to be busy in his occupation in the past. "It was I who ferried people from Okhaldhunga, Bhojpur, Solukhumbu apart from the locals. Besides, I also ferried goods and goats," he says.

He complains that all his sons and grandsons have left home after the ferrying profession has come to a halt. "Not it is very difficult for us to keep our bodies and souls together," he says.