National 8 (Spotlight Weekly)

Quality At Stake

The deteriorating education quality and the instability in the private schools are not likely to end by the recent decision to impose ceiling in school fees

By THAKUR AMGAI

When the newly appointed Minister for Education and Sports Bimalendra Nidhi took charge of his office more than two months ago, he had told reporters that he would change laws and regulations to implement the suggestions of fixing ceiling for fees in institutional schools. At that time the guardians and the schools had taken it as just one more incident of verbal commitment. However, the recent government decision to fix the ceiling on school fees to be charged by the private schools has dealt a blow to the school owners.

Students in a private school : Pay for quality education

In what seems to be an action taken in a hurry, the decision is not clear about the operational plans. Without a proper operational plan and study of its long term consequences, the decision seems to be an attempt to diffuse the protests by various student organizations as well as the Maoist-affiliated student union - ANNISU-R, which had closed down schools throughout the country for two weeks earlier this year demanding, among others, reduction of fees in institutional schools.

In a clear-cut case of an action against the spirit of liberalization and market economy, the government has interfered in the fixing of fees by the private schools. The private schools, which have drawn billions of rupees of private investment and are the only hope for Nepalese parents who want to provide quality education to their children, could face an uncertain situation if the decision is implemented in toto, say experts.

According to the latest government decision, a private school cannot charge more than Rs 700 per month. Schools with relatively better infrastructure and facilities can charge 25 to 50 percent more than the fixed ceiling. The decision by the Education Ministry, which was taken on August 4, is based on the report prepared by a task force led by Janardan Nepal, director general of Education Department. Likewise, the schools are free to charge extra money on the facilities they provide including examination, computer, special training, hostel, transportation and so on.

As per the government decision, in case of metropolitan and sub-metropolitan cities primary schools can charge up to Rs 500, lower secondary schools can charge up to Rs 600 and secondary schools can charge up to Rs 700. In district headquarters, the ceiling is Rs 450, Rs 550 and Rs 650 for primary, lower secondary and secondary schools respectively. Likewise, in rural areas the ceiling is Rs 300, Rs 400 and Rs 500 for the primary, lower secondary and secondary schools respectively. If a school needs to increase the fee beyond the ceiling, that decision has to be endorsed by the meeting of parents and school management committees. However, in case of schools, which are taking lower fees than the ceiling, they cannot raise their fees now to meet the ceiling.

Suprabhat Bhandari, president of Guardians’ Association, has stressed on the need to effectively implement the decision. "The private schools should adhere to the government decision. The schools are not in a mood to implement it immediately. 'Mafias' are active not to implement the decision," said Bhandari who was representing the guardians in the task force that made the recommendation for fixing the ceiling. "Despite some reservations, we support the decision."

Govt. school students : Ignored

However, private school owners allege the government of distorting the recommendation. According to them, they had signed the document with some strong reservations.

"Why should the government impose fee ceiling? The government does not have the right to impose ceiling on fees," Laxman RajBanshi, Principal Siddhartha Banasthali Institute was quoted as saying.

The decision to impose the fee looks like a please-all decision on the part of the government. Instead of planning and contemplating about the long term impacts of the decision, the government has just tried to diffuse the vehement protests from the student groups. The ministry officials, too, seem to be working hard to placate the Maoist students. When a group of teachers went to the ministry to register their school running under the affiliation of a foreign examination board, an official of the ministry fumed, "It is you people who violate the rules, and we have to suffer the threats of the revolutionaries (ANNISU-R)"

"The ANNISU-R being a rebelling group can put any demand as per its party strategy and for propaganda. It is the government's responsibility to decide what is right and what is not. The government's double standard of terming the group as terrorist and implementing decisions to shield themselves from threats is detrimental to the nation's educational future," said a school owner.

With the government and rebels forces focused on matters of school fees of private schools, the issue of quality education in both private and government schools remains ignored. It is the students of government schools who are suffering the most. At private schools, parents have paid more fees and are concerned about the kind of education their children are getting, "I pay higher fees to the school with my consent. I do not think it is proper for anybody to intervene in this process. I am paying more because I am concerned about the quality of education the school gives to my children. If the government can, it should 'assist' parents like us to monitor whether the school is providing the promised facilities. If not, we ourselves can judge and choose a proper school for our children. It is better for the government to divert its attention to the community, which needs its care," said a parent.

What is to be noted here is that no children of high-ranking government officials and politicians study in community schools. "Unless their own kids start going to community (public) schools, the quality of education will not improve," says one of the student leaders. Among other demands, the ANNISU-R had also put a demand a few years back that the children of all government officials should be admitted to public schools.

The community schools, which should have received the most attention of the government, is being ignored at present. The school administration and teachers of community schools are less accountable to any institution.

Following the conflict and instability in the educational sector, a lot of students have left the country for education abroad. The number of Nepali students in the boarding schools of north-western and eastern parts of India is ever increasing. "Whenever such instabilities start in Nepal, more and more Nepali students go to India for further education," said Shanta Dixit, Director of Rato Bangala School. She is of the opinion that instead of imposing ceiling on fees the government should bring some kind of policy that private schools allocate a certain amount of money for the welfare of the community schools or other underprivileged children. "We have set aside a portion of fees for underprivileged children," said Dixit.

However, there are other parents who support the government decision but with a caveat. "Reducing fees is fine, everyone would like to get best services at a low cost," said a parent, "But we obviously have to ponder whether the quality will be retained by reducing the fees. We are not ready to compromise with the quality of education that my children get and I will send my children abroad, if the government forces to reduce the fees at the cost of quality," said Rinchin Yonjan, a parent. "I am very happy with the fee that I am paying, why does anybody else have to bother about it," she added.

What is to be noted here is many schools who have good rapport with the parents have already started to talk about the issue of reduction of fees with the parents and have requested for their 'co-operation.'

The meaning of co-operation could be the use of double account or fees in other names. If the decision is implemented it is quite certain that the schools would manipulate their billing system so as not to reduce the total amount of their fees.

"We will not reduce the fees. We will take the consent of the parents," said a school administrator of a school in Lalitpur, whose fee does not fall within the ceiling.