Forum (Spotlight Weekly)

Right to Education: Criticisms Difficult to Dismiss Out of Hand

By Bipin Adhikari

One of the many important areas in which Nepal has achieved a certain level of progress is the area of child education. Education is a civil, cultural, economic, political and social right. It has clear linkages with all other human rights too.

The enjoyment of many civil political rights, such as freedom of information, expression, assembly and education, the right to vote and to be elected or the right of equal access to public service depends on at least a minimum level of education. Education aims at strengthening human rights. This is the reason that a lot of public money and international donations continue to be spent on it. A significant chunk of this money comes to the government by way of bilateral and multilateral loans. The focus on educational sector is constant despite increasing debt pressure, budget deficits, and stagnant or falling revenue.

Just on June 30, 2003, the World Bank approved†a USD 5 million credit to support Nepal's efforts to transfer the government schools to the local communities. This is being done with the hope that community management of public schools will†contribute to enhancing participation, quality, efficiency, and accountability of schools.†The transfer of schools to community management represents much more than reforms in the education sector. It represents a new way of thinking in Nepal's development administration about creative processes that put recipients at the centre, empowering them to manage their own resources and allowing them to define their own future. But this is something that can be accomplished only with the efforts of all and with adequate civic consciousness.

The right to receive education constitutes the core of the right to education. The most important provision in this respect are Article 26 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 13 and 14 of the Convention on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, and Articles 28-29 of the Child Rights Convention. These provisions primarily create corresponding state obligations to fulfil the right to education by means of positive action. In recent years, the government has also encouraged the private schools to operate in the educational sector. Due to this reason, there is a commendable growth of private schools in Nepal. Many of them have already proved their ability to provide quality education - at least to the urban people. Although there are issues that need to be settled, their contribution to the education sector of Nepal must be recognised without hesitation.

In essence, the successful implementation of the right to education requires cooperation of all segments of society including parents, student unions and owners of the schools. This cooperation has been frequently impaired in recent months. The right to education by its very nature calls for regulation by the state according to the need and resources of the community and of the hard realities of the economically poor nation. Some concerns have been expressed from the beginning that the government has not been able to properly regulate these private schools in the interest of all stakeholders. These schools also have ventilated the grievance that their freedom to establish, direct and run their institutions has not been adequately respected. An independent observer may also think that the majority of Nepalese stakeholders in the educational sector should change their thinking, attitudes and behaviour if the quality education should be encouraged in the country.

The state in Nepal does not finance private schools, and so does not provide them with the same facilities as public schools. But a majority of the stakeholders expect the private schools to be cheap, affordable, yet with the same level quality education that they are offering to the children. This does not seem to be possible in view of their investment, quality control, and various on-the-school and boarding facilities.

It is in this context that more than 8,500 private boarding schools continue to be harassed and closed, thereby threatening the right to education of thousands of children. The government which has a regulative role has not been serious on the issues on the ongoing talks between the school management and agitating student unions over restructuring of fees and other curricular and extra-curricular activities. The Private and Boarding Schoolsí Organisation of Nepal (PABSON) and National Private and Boarding School Association, Nepal (N-PABSAN) recently opted to close down these schools instead of responding to the issues objectively. They think that the student unions who have presented a list of 68 demands, including an end to all but nominal tuition fees and a more standardised curriculum around the kingdom, are asking for too much.

The other demands of the student unions were to introduce fee ceiling system in boarding schools and to provide scholarships for 25 per cent students belonging to deprived communities and poor families. They said the schools have kept raising charges for everything from sports to libraries to the construction of new school buildings. The protesters contend that tuition fees have rarely gone to help students' welfare or improve the quality of instruction. They said they were ready to discuss with the school management the matters concerning the restructuring of the fees as the boarding schools are charging unjustifiably high fees from students. But the schools have their genuine grievances as well.

The tussle between the school managements and the unions has been affecting over 1.5 million students across the country. The government has to take the role of mediator and try to sort out all educational matters in the best interest of all stakeholders. No matter how private are the private schools, they have to live with their social responsibilities. But the political overtones that these student unions have carried with them can hardly be responded at that level. As these student unions are affiliated to the political parties who are carrying out a campaign of protests against King Gyanendra for dissolving the elected government last year, the parties have used these unions as instruments. It is indeed very shameful that the future of little children has been gambled for the future of the leaders on the streets.

(Adhikari is a lawyer)