Paying a high price

By Arjun Niroula

Education, as its name refers, is the most important and essential element for human beings to adjust themselves in a society. Education is a burning need for people everywhere. Everything decays with time but once quality education is achieved it never ends. Education teaches the student the virtues of honesty, politeness, respect, neatness, regularity, punctuality, integrity and diligence. Education is not only limited to reading and writing but it also helps in the all round development of an individual - physically, socially, mentally and intellectually.

The education system of Nepal is in complete confusion. The academic environment of schools and campuses is disastrous because of the direct involvement of politics. Unhealthy and unwanted political interference in the name of ‘students union’ on education is worsening its quality day by day.

Nowadays there is privatisation in the educational sector like in industries. If you hang around the city, you may encounter numerous signboards, banners and pamphlets advertising private English boarding schools. More attractive slogans like ‘Only an English boarding school of European standard’, ‘A boarding school with highly qualified teachers and homely atmosphere’, ‘Come and make your children’s bright future’ etc. can be seen in every banner and in pamphlets in the nooks and corners of the city. But the reality is different. In the name of quality education, these so-called English boarding schools are cheating the students and their guardians. The main goal of these schools is to earn economic profit. To achieve this goal, they charge high fees.

These schools charge whatever fee they like. There is no authority to check them from charging high fees. These private and boarding schools have commercialized and adulterated the sacred system. Private boarding schooling has been considered as a trade of making more money rather than an activity of social service and human upliftment. These schools are so frequently sold and bought that the owner of a same single school sometimes goes to four or five in a year. In each moment they are sold at a higher price with a good profit margin. Similarly, the textbooks are changed so often and so are the teachers.

The government on the one hand said that the private schools have contributed in the field of education greatly. But in these circumstances how far is it beneficial to the public economically?

Furthermore, these so-called institutions overburden the children in terms of books and homework. A child of class one is compelled to carry a bag of books weighing about 10 kg. Unnecessary books, written by imported writers are prescribed in the texts and recommended to the students which economically burdens the guardians and adds a mental load to the students. If sometimes a child does not do his homework, he will be beaten badly, instead of giving him suggestions on how to solve the problem. The teachers of these schools are not well qualified and they even don’t know how to behave with children.

At present, even the well-educated guardians want an expensive education for their children because they have the concept of good education means paying more money. These parents believe that they have to pay high bills because of society even if they have to live by hand to mouth. According to them, they are compelled to do so to remain in a position in society. If a guardian admits his child into a school which charges fees relatively lower than the school of his neighbour’s child, the former feels himself to be socially lower. This type of psychology is deeply rooted in all parents.

All the guardians should be aware that quality education does not depend on expensive fees; it is the outcome of discipline, labour and hard work. These widely mushrooming schools, intended for money making may add business values but the whole education system will be left paralysed. So if it is unchecked and monitoring and evaluation not taken in time, the country’s dream of a qualified and efficient manpower for the future will turn into tragedy and disaster.

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