National 2 (Spotlight Weekly)

Nobody's Agenda

With political parties engrossed in deciding their own fate, education remains under assault

By A CORRESSPONDENT

More than 200 schoolchildren were kidnapped by Maoists rebels in Ramechhap district last week. After escorting them to a place four hour away, the rebels released the children 24 hours later. Some villages in the western district of Surkhet underwent a similar experience. Under threat from the Maoists, more than 300 teachers decided to leave their schools, closing down an education network villagers had put great hopes in.

Students in village school : Victims of apathy

Although the education sector has been facing a series of setbacks in the six years since the Maoists began their campaign of violence, hardly any political party, teachers' association, human rights organization, intellectual or student organization has considered it a vital issue of public concern.

When the Maoists took hostage those 200 students, few people took it as an event carrying grave implications. The media, obsessed with the latest twists and turns in the political arena, offered secondary coverage. Similar treatment was given to the incident in Surkhet, where more than 4,000 students have been denied their right to go to school.

Whether in the name of demanding withdrawal of Sanskrit from the curriculum or reduction in boarding-school fees, or through outright vandalization of school property, the country's education system seems to have become the first target of destabilization. The Maoists have killed more than two dozen schoolteachers in different parts of the country.

The disturbances in the education institutions have hardly been an issue of political concern. In the last decade, political parties have always hit the education institutions first whenever they want to show their strength and influence. Be it a general strike or any other event, education institutions are always vulnerable to disruptions.

"I don't understand why nobody talks about the abduction of such a large number of children and the denial of the right to education of thousands others," said a British journalist who is in Nepal to cover the education situation. "Don't these events touch your heart? If such events happen in the United Kingdom even for hour, all the media highlight them, creating massive public opinion."

Although every political party preaches slogans like "quality education" and "education for all", in practice, all of them are destroying the education institutions. Upholding a tradition that began during the Panchayat regime, when political parties were banned, leaders view schools and institutions of higher education as training grounds for cadres and tools of promoting their ideology.

Amid such instability, Nepal's education system is passing through a very critical phase. Failure to act now would have damaging consequences over the long term. "Education is nobody's priority sector and everyone, knowingly or otherwise, seems to be playing a part in destroying these temples of learning," says Hit Bir Singh Kansakar, headmaster of Paropakar Higher Secondary School. "As long as the political parties fail to recognize the importance of education, it will be impossible to bring meaningful changes."

Over the last five decade, the country has spent huge amounts of resources - indigenous and foreign - to expand schools buildings and other infrastructures in the country. According to the Ministry of Education, the number of school-going children has increased drastically in the last decade. As there is a primary school in every village development committee and a school building within every one-hour walking distance, rural children have greater and easier access to education than their elders could ever imagine. But the problem now lies in freeing education institutions of violence and political interference in order to foster an enriching teaching-learning process.

"We have adequate infrastructures and teachers, but the problem now is about utilizing them to benefit a large number of rural people," said Dr. Mana Wagle, a professor at Tribhuvan University. "Education must be priority sector for all." It's not too late to heed that lesson.