Civic Education
For Promoting Democratic Values

By Ramesh Prasad Gautam

HUMAN civilisation from Stone Age has come to the age of computer revolution, satellite telecommunication, nuclear power and bio-weapons. Moving towards the modern age is hard to define the complex realities of our life Now information is on our fingertip, just we click the key or mouse and get necessary information within a few second. Human being has created such fantastic and civilized means of communication. Credit for it surely goes to the stellite communication and networking of computers. More than a half of the total population are information workers in the developed countries. It is also increasing in the developing countries like Nepal. Such a massive build up on information and technology can, therefore, also be diveted towards civic education.

Beliefs

We hold a set of beliefs and we have certain rights and responsibilities to be realised and shared. Nepal's democracy is still in its intancy needs time to develop. The citizens seek to retain positive attitude towards democracy, human rights, peace, co-operation and develoment. How can we promote this democratic culture is the serious question. It is a challenge of normative kind. Yet to retain positive attitude toward democracy, we need to inculcate and develop civic sense so that our democratic system sustain can well in the future.

A least developed country like Nepal, and particularly its citizen, is the epitome of poverty, suffers from poor nutrition and diseases. Most of the people live in village. From birth to death they remain a destitute. Flood, famine, drought and other natural disasters continually plague them. They cannot buy books for the children nor pay fees for the quality education. The presence of the large number of poor and hungry ia a big challenge to all our moral principles and democratic set-up.

The Citizens should know about the principles and values of democracy, the rights and responsibilities of individuals and groups and understand the importance of serving the common good. In the last ten or twelve years, a fair amount of our citizen have learnt importance of civic education but a majority of them are not aware of civic consciousness so far. They might have taken participation in voting but they might not yet understand the real significance of their voting rights. How such a large mass of illiterate person be augmented with the civic idea of choosing a right candidate, how to uplift oneself from the party line is a matter of serious concern. And remedy for such situation lies in generating civic consciousness. A massive amount of work is yet to be emanted to understand how democracy works. This is civic education.

Citizens should take an active role in pressuring government officials and politicians to meet their demands. For example, citizens meet with their local officials to insist that rubbish be collected in their villages, or drinking water pipelines or electric lines be distributed in their villages. This example demonstrates how citizens can participate in and make their demands met and hence understand their political process. Similarly, the students, parents, teachers, staff and community members should be involved in establishing goals based on tolerance, acceptance and choice and the awareness of how one person's action or the action of a group can affect others. This awareness can be generated from the school, where they should be taught the importance of civic education not only as a subject in itself but also by integrating civic values in other subjects like literature, political history, geography, etc.

The Popular Movement of 2046 restored multiparty democracy. After this movement nation has already witnessed three general elections. But leaders so far have concentrated to capture power and position. Discipline, lawfulness, social security etc, are neglected. Lack of democratic conduct and economic degradation have been proving a decadent to democracy. People a lack confidence in the way democracy is being conducted. The values have dropped to such an extent that some people have already started talking about alternatives of democratic system.

Discontent developed towards democracy is not a positive sign. At this moment, the party leaders have to unite to end this confusion, instability and corruption. But improvements take time and we need to be patient and not expect too much from our government.

Education is a strategy and process towards human capacity development. To solve the issues and problems of our society we should be clear in the meaning of the term "quality and reliance of education". It is often pointed out, and studies have also indicated that the quality of education delivered by most schools are unsatisfactory. Education should always be future oriented. Although future cannot be predicted accurately, we could deduce the trend and we should be clear where we want to go. Accordingly we should decide our educational goals. The goal should be set up with an eye to the upliftment of the values of the society. We must use formal, informal and non-formal approaches to provide education from primary to higher levels in such a way that the students can understand the importance of democratic governance.

Our school education system comprises five years of primary education, three years of lower secondary education, two years of secondary education and two years of higher secondary education. The policy of replacing intermediate level from Tribhuvan University has gradually been in progress. The structure of tertiary education consists of 3 years of Bachelor's degree followed by 2 years of Master Degree. In all these ladders of the education system we have to seriously devise the content and of curriculum in such a way that civic consciousness could be aroused in the student psyche, right from the primary level to the Master Degree. The contents have to be devised in a way where all the disciplines-art, commerce and science-are given the right amount of civic education, so that the students can willingly take the burden of a developing democratic country.

The purpose of education may be defined and set as per the contextual situation of a specific country. System of education is a part of our society under the influence of different social groups, each country has developed its own modalities. It should contribute to the development of individual's livelihood and sustain the democratic values.

Essential

Nepal has to incorporate its education system by emphasising science and technology with a view to eradicate poverty. In this regard, we should consider the problem of our country noting its relationship to the problem of relevance. Nepal has already crossed more than one decade of democratic practice. But the gaps between haves and have-nots have not been lessened. There has been a substantial rise in the number of people below the poverty line. More than fifty per cent of the people are still illiterate and ignorant. In the school curricula, even if the democratic values are mentioned, the practical aspect of them has remained weak. In this context, with a view to make people aware of the democratic principles, it is essential to include such curricula that emphasis in democratic values be given right form the school level. Therefore, it is essential that the people have basic understanding of the process of democracy and its implication in the total development of the country. Similarly, all the participants in nation making - i.e. students, teachers, parents and school management committee and local representative can play important roles in this regard. By participating in political process the people can help improve the quality of governance, civic education and democratic values and norms.

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