A Two Tiered Education System?

By Yug Bahadur

Being a developing nation, Nepal has always put education in the priority sector. Right from the time when the first Five Year Plan was initiated, His Majesty's Government has sought to provide education to all the people.

In the many years since then, the doors of education have been opened to everyone and as a result, this sector has seen a growth in leaps and bounds. The results are there for all to see, specially in terms of quantity. But sadly, still the nation seems to lag far behind as far as providing quality education is concerned.

But we are not going to discuss issues like the still low literacy rate and the poor quality of education in the country. This has been dwelled upon by experts and others many times over. What we are going to do is, look at a new trend that is developing in Nepalese education, both in primary schools and now also in higher education.

This trend we are talking about, is the entrance of the private sector in giving education and also the steep price they are asking for what they term as 'quality education', thus putting the same beyond the grasp of the majority.

First, we saw the rapid participation of the private sector in primary schools, then slowly they graduated to high schools and now even college level education is being imparted by privately run higher secondary schools and colleges. This is in accordance with the policy of His Majesty's Government and it is also definitely true that the private sector schools and colleges are taking off a big burden from government run public schools and colleges.

If we recall, till less than two decades back, all the colleges were run by the Tribhuvan University alone. And one would probably be surprised to know, that classes in all colleges at that time, still had only about forty students on an average and teachers did not neglect their duties.

But at present, students in the government run colleges complain that there is not even standing room in a class most of the time. And also, lecturers tend to give more time to their 'private' jobs, though they are permanent employees of the Tribhuvan University. "The classes are too crowded, mostly the teachers don't bother to come and the exams are also not held in time," complained a student of Shanker Dev Campus, a well-reputed college till sometime back.

On the other hand, students acknowledge that the privately run colleges have limited students, the teachers are punctual and courses are completed in most cases. But the catch is, the private colleges are just too expensive. Whereas a student would require just around one or two thousand rupees to study for a year in the government colleges, privately run institutions charge anywhere from a whopping Rs.20,000 to above Rs. 30,000 annually!

What has been largely overlooked by many, is the fact such a situation seems to have created a two-tiered education system, specially at the college level. There are the colleges which are being attended by the children of the well heeled people, mostly in the urban areas. And then there are those students, mostly who hail from poor rural sector, that are studying in the public colleges.

Even studying subjects like medicine, engineering and computer studies, have become a matter of whether a student can shell out enough money or not. A student is required to pay more than one million rupees if he or she wants to study medicine in private colleges. This most of the Nepalese just can't afford to do. In the only government run Medicine Campus, only a little over 40 students get the opportunity to study MBBS each year. Considering the fact that almost one hundred thousand students pass SLC each year, the competition is too fierce to get entrance at such institutions.

For now, no impact of this colleges attended by haves and have nots may have been felt. But there is bound to be some serious repercussion in the long run. Specially so, if the students studying in the better colleges, tend to either go only in the technical fields, join private companies or leave the country altogether.

Policy makers in the government and also those in the education sector must seriously look into this matter while there is still time and they must try to find some solutions to bridge the gap between the private and government run schools and colleges, before it becomes too late.

Rajanís Impressions On Nepal

By Our Correspondent

Probably only a few people knew that apart from being a diplomat's wife, Ms. Gita Rajan is also a very skillful artist. Prior to her departure from Nepal, the wife of the Indian ambassador to Nepal K.V. Rajan has exhibited her paintings, reflecting her impressions about Nepal during her stay in the Himalayan Kingdom.

ìShe will now be remembered as not only a very good hostess and a helping hand to her ambassador husband but also as a lover of Nepal," remarked an audience, who was full of praise about the paintings.

The art pieces displayed depicted the beauty, culture and the heritage of Nepal. However, the painting of Their Majesties the King and the Queen was the one which attracted the most attention. This painting is a proof of her skill in painting.

Her Majesty Queen Aishworya Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah had opened the two-day long exhibition at the Siddhartha Art Gallery inside Baber Mahal Revisited amidst a special function on Wednesday.

A total of 64 art pieces were on exhibition cum sale. There were sixteen paintings under the series ìImages of Nepalî and 34 other under ìForays into the Abstractî done on different media. All these paintings are the reflections of what she has observed in Nepal -- beauty, people and the culture.

"I found all these impressions very fascinating and copied them on canvas,í she opined about her paintings. All the 50 pieces of art were the works of the past couple of months.

The paintings portray her deep attachment and association with Nepalese cultural heritages and Gods and Goddesses like Patan Durbar Square, Ganesh, Kumari, Rato Machhindranath, Nepalese natural scenarios like the Everest, Machhapuchhre, rhododendron, and the rural life.

One of her paintings entitled ìSunset on Machhapuchhreî done on oil was so attractive that it was immediately sold.

Also on the exhibition were her 16 other art pieces which she had done when she was in Paris. The pieces done nearly 30 years ago on the Paris impression also show her adroitness in running brushes on the canvas.

Rajan has already exhibited her paintings in various places including Paris, Washington D.C. and New Delhi.

Folk Music, Dance Festival

By Our Correspondent

Organised jointly by Royal Nepal Academy and Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), a three-day National Folk Music Dance Festival started in Kathmandu from Friday.

Fourteen different groups representing all the 14 zones of the country are participating in the folk music and dance competition.

The groups emerging first, second and third  will be given a prize of Rs. 25,000, 20,000 and 15,000 respectively. The other participating groups will get  consolation prizes of Rs. 5,000 each.

Inaugurating the cultural festival, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Tarini Dutta Chataut lauded the role of such  programme in the preservation of national culture and heritage and promotion of the countryís tourism.

Chataut said that since art, culture, music and literature are an integral part of a country's identity, the nationís development reflects in the preservation and promotion of these sectors.

On the occasion, Vice Chancellor of the Royal Nepal Academy Mohan Koirala said the acaemy was fully committed to the promotion and folk dances and music.

Nir Shah, coordinator of the festival, informed that about Rs. 400,000 has been spent for organising the programme.

Pradeep Raj Pandey, CEO of NTB and Academyís member-secretary Dr. Tulasi Prasad Bhattarai also spoke about the importance of the preservation of culture.