NATIONAL8 (Spotlight Weekly]

Locking Horns

With its top brasses engaged in brawling, the modus operandi of the Higher Secondary Education Council draws criticism

By A CORRESPONDENT

The ten plus two system is rocked by a row among the top managers of Higher Secondary Education Council -- the body responsible to regulate the higher secondary schools throughout the country.

And that is the reason why doubts loom large whether this year's ten plus two exams -- scheduled for April -- will take place on time. Which means the fate of the 74,000 students awaiting their exams remains undecided.

Crying enough is enough, the Guardians Association Nepal has already issued a press release urging the government to take necessary measures to hold the exams timely. "The government should do something to avoid harming the future of so many students in the ten plus two schools."

There are above 500 higher secondary schools throughout the country. But one camp in the HSEC believes that the doubts spread on whether the exams will be held timely is only a propaganda of its rival group.

Knowledgeable sources say the trouble started after there was change of guards in the top post of HSEC. Following the appointment of Koushal Raj Regmi as the Vice Chairman of the council earlier last month, who replaced Tirtha Khaniya, there has been virtually no love lost between the new boss and the Member Secretary and Directors under him.

"There is practically an impasse between the new boss and his immediate subordinates," sources say. "And that is the reason why tug of war between the two camps still continues."

Its latest bungling has further dented the already tarnished image of the HSCE, experts say. Consider its past records: Of the more than 2000 grade 11 examinees in the central region -- most of them in Kathmandy Valley -- not even 600 passed the higher secondary exam in 1996.

The result further dipped in 1997 producing less than twenty five percent of passed students in the region that boasts of the "best schools" in the country.

With the "well equipped" schools in the central region producing such poor results, the plight with those in the other regions is any one's guess.

District wise, the cases were worse. Not to talk about the remote areas, many schools and campuses running the ten plus two system in districts like Jhapa, Morang, Bardia, Surkhet, Gorkha, among others, saw none of their students pass the higher secondary exams last year.

The data brought out in 1998 was more alarming. Only seven percent of the education faculty passed the class twelve exams in 1997. Similary, a mere eight percent of class eleven students with the Faculty of Humanities passed the higher secondary exams.

With the deficient results of the capital-city based higher secondary schools and the horrendous outcome of the ten plus two exams in the outlying districts, the higher secondary education system is anything but a success story.

Dr. Tirtha Khaniya, the immediate past Vice Chairman of HSEC, had told SPOTLIGHT in 1998 that the council was not able to inspect any of the Higher secondary school's performance. Reason? "Inadequate manpower and funding," said Dr. Khaniya.

With no government mechanism to monitor their operations, many higher secondary schools have taken undue advantage of the situation. Forget about the schools in the remote areas, many of them even in the capital city -- right under the nose of the HSCE -- have hired teachers who are not even post-graduates -- the minimum qualification to teach the ten plus two classes.

Interestingly, many teachers appointed by the HSCE to teach in the remote areas are found to be teaching in the higher secondary schools in the capital city. "Therfore the HSCE has many teachers' names recorded in more than one institution," those running Higher Secondary Schools say.

The criteria set for the higher secondary schools are limited to the papers alone. For example, the HSCE requires the ten plus two schools to have adequate space for the school environment. But many of these school buildings in Kathmnadu Valley bordering the busy main-streets mock the council's school mapping program.