Education For All

MINISTER for Education and Sports Amod Prasad Upadhyaya reiterated the commitment of His Majesty’s Government for accomplishing the lofty goal of providing educational opportunity to all citizens living in every nook and corner of the country. In a message on the occasion of the International Literacy Day in Kathmandu the other day, Minister Upadhyaya called upon all people including professionals, social workers and civil society to play an active role and extend cooperation to the government for making Education For All programme a success. Education is very important for the country’s social and economic transformation. Only educated and informed citizens can make significant contribution for the country’s sustainable development. But Nepal’s status in education is one of the lowest in the world. This is one of the reasons why Nepal has not been able to make headway in social and economic fronts. In view of the importance of education, His Majesty’s Government has accorded high priority to the development of education. The government has declared education upto secondary level free. Besides, several non-formal programmes have been launched throughout the country to raise the literacy level and create more skilled manpower. On top of this, the government is trying to bring about a long-term action plan in order to provide basic and sustainable education to all adults, maintain gender equality in education and provide free and compulsory education by 2015. Several donors and national and international agencies have been extending support to the government in raising educational status of Nepal. As a result of these efforts, there has been significant progress in the field of literacy. However, it is still not satisfactory. More than 50 per cent of the people are still illiterate. The literacy rate of women is even lower. The percentage of educated people is also very small. There are still quite a large number of children who have never stepped into school. Almost half of those who enroll in grade one drop out before they complete grade three. As education plays a crucial role in the country’s sustainable development, efforts need to be made to provide educational opportunity to all people and raise the quality of education. As stated by the Minister for Education and Sports, efforts of the government alone may not be sufficient for the successful implementation of the literacy programme and fully ensuring the educational opportunities to all citizens, active cooperation from all people including professionals especially teachers and educators and civil society is highly necessary.

Gautam’s Exemplary Feat

SUDARSHAN Gautam, 21, who lost both his hands to a high voltage current some 11 years ago, drove a car successfully with the help of his legs the other day in the capital city. A resident of Bandhaure VDC in Ramechhap district, Gautam is currently a third-year BBS student of Nepal Commerce College. Gautam’s recent feat, in more ways than one, testifies to the fact that a disabled citizen is as good as any able-bodied citizen when it comes to doing things that ordinary citizens perform. But more importantly, Gautam, through his noteworthy feat, amply proved that even disabled citizens, given the right attitude, will and dedication, can go on to become self-supporting citizens of the nation. As such, Gautam needs to be praised and further encouraged by all. The more so since he, single-handedly, has debunked the generally held impression: that disabled citizens, since they cannot do anything, are a burden to the family, society and country.

This same notion concerning the disabled, needless to point out, is also due to the lack of ample opportunities to these less fortunate citizens of the country to tap their latent potentials. For, it is a truism by now that even disabled citizens have potentials. In this regard, the glaring absence of disabled-specific schemes has indeed impeded the wishes of the disabled to stand on their own feet. However, this does not mean that there are no disabled-focused programmes in the country. Or, for that matter, organisations that cater to the specific needs of the disabled. There are, and that they are doing their best to assist the disabled to become respected citizens by imparting them with necessary training and skills. Yet, the need to come up with more such programmes is always there if all the disabled citizens are to be given equal and ample chances to tap their latent talents. This, for a resource-strapped, cash-crunched nation like ours, may be a tall order. Nevertheless, what is also true is that a nation is verily known by the way and manner in which it caters to the needs of the less fortunate sections of its society. Hence, it is imperative that the concerned authorities, through judicious use of available resources, not only chalk out more disabled-specific schemes but also come up with requisite measures to implement them for the benefits of all the disabled citizens of the
country.