Reform In Education System
A Few Tips

By Bhola Lohani

NEPAL launched several reform exercises that armed at improving both quality and quantity in education. The first such an attempt was made in 1955 when the National Educational Planning Commission was set up to recommend the measures to bring about reforms in the education system. Some of the recommendations of the report such as development of education materials and the teachers’ training were promptly implemented. Similarly, science education enrichment programme was launched with a view to train science teachers. But the landmark reform attempt in education was the introduction of New Education System Plan in 1971. The plan ignored the private sector, expected the state to take full charge of education management and proposed significant changes in education structure, financing, education goals and objectives, curriculum, instructional materials and teacher education. The impact of the plan which was implemented with full political commitment was enormous. However, these contributed more towards quantitative expansion and had minimal impact on quality development. The classroom teaching could not be improved to the desired extent because of the weak management, inadequate resources and lack of qualified teachers.

Focus

In the mid 1980’s and in the early 1990’s the education reform agenda was taken up again and implemented with loan or grant assistance provided by the donor agencies such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank. The primary education reform programme launched since mid 1980’s encompassed multi faceted activities, which included curriculum development, teacher training, establishment of resource centres and construction of classrooms. At the secondary level, the focus was on preparation of education materials and on training of teachers in maths, science and English language. These attempts are intended ton minimise the educational wastage such as students high drop out and repetition rates at the primary level and low success rates of school graduates at the secondary level.

Despite the reform attempts, education quality seems to be poor. If the S.L.C. results are taken as an indicator to education quality. The pass percentage of the government schools is below thirty per cent. Average school graduates appear weak academically for higher learning and lack competitive skills to enter the world of work.

Indeed, education quality will largely depend on how well the education reform programme addressed to inject excellence and efficacy to the above determinants are designed, organised, co-ordinated and implemented professionally in an environment free of political interference and corrupt practices. In other words, education reform needs to be undertaken as a package programme.

A blanket enactment or decision on any issue is less likely to be remedy of all evils. Firstly, a competent and committed teacher is a single most important factor that determines education quality. It is essential that a candidate takes an aptitude test whether s/he is suitable for the job. Also, the candidate needs to be educationally sound and stable for appointment in education service. The recent education enactment makes teaching license compulsory for all teachers including those in service. This may help weed out all forged certificate holders and incompetent teachers from the school education service. However, one doubts whether the present set up of education management which inducted these forged certificate holders in the service can be efficient, impartial and competent to do the job. So, the management needs to be revamped and made transparent in order to free it from corrupt elements and politicisation. Frequient changes of government should not affect the reform process.

Secondly, curricula must be broad based and well balanced so that study areas and content are designed to reflect the national socio-economic realities and are comparable to international standards of education. Schools should be encouraged to prepare and update teaching learning materials based on set curricular objectives, and relevant to cultural, environmental and geographical factors of the regions. It would be wise to design student’s test materials to reward originality, not rote learning, and award grades, not marks to avoid unhealthy competitions among students. Teachers should be provided with incentives to carry out education innovation that promotes analytical system of learning. It would be better for quality learning if teacher-student ratio is around 1.30. Also educational facilities and amenities in most of the schools need to be upgraded for conducive learning environment.

Thirdly, it is important to employ a competent and dedicated senior teacher of high integrity and character as headmaster to run a school efficiently. This requires development of a machanism for recruitment and orientation of school headmasters. Also, headmasters should be given more authority in decision making.

Fourthly, school education experts should conduct periodic evaluation of the education standards ad standardise the levelewise and classwise tests. The ministry as an apex policy and coordinating body will have to invigorate its constituent organs responsible for curriculum development, examination, teacher education and programme implementation, and oversee that these agencies, in co-ordination, design standardisation materials or tools, executive and monitor the tasks regularly. This should help redesign and plan the reform programme for upgrading the standards of education further.

Fifthly, the quality issue is a subject of joint responsibility and needs to be tackled by education authorities in partnership with school managers, educationists and guardians indeed a concerted effort is required to promote the general standards of education in all government aided or privately run schools. There is also need of a standard supervision directory which will include supervision tools for assessment of teachers and students and for the preparation of the state of art report of the schools. The supervision team will have to identify the areas in which average students are relatively strong or weak, point out strengths and weaknesses of a school and suggest ways to improve the overall functioning of the school. If the performance of a school is not improved within a specified period of time, the recognition of such a school which is run below standard may be withheld irrespective of whether it is a government aided or a private one.

Market Need

Finally, expanding school system and raising enrollments are no longer the priority agenda these days. We witness increasing demand for quality learning, that emphasises on working knowledge and skills in areas such as communication information technology, environment, planning and designing, and on creativity and entrepreneurship. These skills need to be inculcated in students right from school education. It is important to attune the education system to the market needs sufficiently fiexible to adapt to changing demands.

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