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.
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