An honest profession of 'teaching' has been transformed into a 'money making' endeavor in Nepal

-Dr. Sri Krishna Yadav, T.U, Kirtipur

He is sober, gentle, humble and helpful indeed. He believes in the pluralist sense of justice. He is undoubtedly a die-hard democrat. However, he has no political affiliation with any of the existing political parties in Nepal. Concurrently Dr. Sri Krishna Yadav is a patriotic personality. He hails from the Terai plains. He obtained his Doctoral degree from Jaypur University in India in the discipline of Linguistics.

His areas of special interests are, for example, Survey, Resource Development, Language and Politics, Nation Building and Communication as well.

Dr. Yadav comes from very cultured family of the Yadavs in Siraha district. Yet he is very simple in his manners and prefers to utilize his free hours for social activities. His colleagues find in him a cooperative soul. Currently Dr. Sri Krishna Yadav is serving as an Associate Professor at the Department of Linguistics, T.U, Kirtipur.

By the grace of Almighty the powerful, he is the husband of the Deputy Speaker of the Lower House of the Nepalese Parliament, Mrs. Chitra Lekha Yadav. The contrast is there politically speaking for Mr. Yadav is an Educationist of par excellence and his consort is a political woman. However, this visible contrast the two have been cooperating each other as normal human beings.

The prevailing Teraian customs and traditions normally do not promote the women folks to enter into politics. However, Mrs. Yadav received full cooperation from her new family after the marriage that facilitated her grand entrance into politics and look the surprising results.  "'I feel honored to have Chitra Lekha as my wife who is currently the Honorable deputy speaker of Parliament. It is her dedication towards politics that has brought her at this stature", said a beaming husband Dr. Sri Krishna Yadav.

Last week we approached this scholar for an exclusive tête-à-tête at his private residence. Dr. Yadav expressed his views. The results follow- Chief  Editor.

TGQ1 Dr. Yadav could you please enlighten the readers of my weekly about the situation of education in Nepal. We have been told that things are not as what it should have been. What is the real issue? Who is to be blamed for the distortions, if any, in this sacrosanct sector? Your exclusive comments please.

Dr. Yadav: Mr. Upadhyaya, This is really a very genuine and serious question. In ancient Nepal, education (vidya) was given as a charity, free of cost, and it was considered a pious obligation of the academics, where guru would teach his chela (students) everything. Imparting education was service oriented. But today, it has become money oriented. An honest profession of teaching has been transformed into a money making endeavor. It has become the object of sell or purchase. There are seller and buyer of the education. The sense of profit and loss in imparting education has become the order of the present day. Thus, once education becomes a commodity of sale and purchase, the values, ideals, and culture of a nation gradually degenerate. So it is the commercialization of education, which has brought distortions. The sad state of affairs with our education system is that those officers in charge of controlling the quality of overall management of public school send their own children in private schools. Moreover, the tuition fee in private school is arbitrary one. Some school charge high tuition fee while other charge less for the same facility available in schools.  The government does not seem serious about such discrepancy prevailing in private schools. Besides, the government is not worried about the deterioration of standard in public schools. Therefore, the government is to be blamed for the distortions of quality in education.

TGQ 2 : You have been, I suppose, associated with the development of a number of educational initiatives in Nepal especially in the field of higher – secondary education. Now tell us what would have happen to those initiatives after you left the said organization.?

Dr. Yadav: This is a very subjective question carrying individual importance, which I do not deserve. Because I am not so an important person, nor I have held such an important post. However, I would like to thank you that you have seen something in me. I am a reader in the Department of Linguistics. I worked as a campus chief in one of the constituent campuses of T U for four years and also worked as a director of curriculum, Textbook and Training in Higher Secondary Education Board, Sanothimi for four years. Based on the experiences and observations of these two institutions what I can say is that with the restoration of democracy in 1990 there has not yet been the practice of institutional development. Rather it is an individual who runs the institution depending on his capacity as a manager plus his access to the power center. An individual run institution is always at risk. The case in example is Higher Secondary Education Board( HSEB)where the tussle between vice-chairman and member secretary has paralyzed the institution.In Nepal, there is a tradition that the successor doesn’t continue the works or programs put in operation by their predecessors even if   it is good and is in the interest of nation. This makes the program always unsustainable. Therefore, I don’t think that whatever I have done in the best interest of the students and the nation could be followed by my successor in the curriculum directorate. After I left the directorate as a director of curriculum and training  in HSEB no developmental work has yet taken place since three months. During my period the new revised curriculum for 10+2 has been implemented wherein the curriculum of almost 55 subjects have been included . Many new globally important themes like human rights , environment education , gender education,  special need education , civic education,etc have been introduced. For civic education and special need education   separate courses carrying 100 marks each  have been devised and implemented. More  than this is the publication of about 60 teaching manuals in different subjects for which I must feel proud. This has been very fruitful for teachers of different subjects in the sense that the new curriculum has been rather ambitious and so many new topics have been introduced for which teachers need orientation. Teaching manual in such case has been very fruitful and is  of great help for them.Now coming back to the basic question that what would be the fate of those initiatives after I leave   depends much on the continuity  of the many academic exercises I launched in the past . 

TGQ 3: Dr. Yadav!  The type of schooling system in Nepal in leading the existing Nepali society apparently into two class – those trained in the private schools and those trained in the public schools – and having uneven level of their access to politics, resources, institutions and the likes. In one way or other, this has resulted in the creation of two classes of citizens in the state which is undoubtedly unfortunate. How this dangerous aberration seen in this field could be arrested? Also let us know what sort of schooling system is required for this country so that there is no distinction between the citizens?

Dr. Yadav: Here I would like to recall my three weeks school visit in Denmark sometimes in 1997. There I visited about 15 schools of different types from public to private, etc. To my great surprise, what I found that all the students irrespective of socioeconomic status, religious groups, nationalities, sex, regions, etc. were having the same type of education in the same environment. In course, during our school visit  I asked the guide  whether there was any such school where only rich student could get education. The answer was negative one. All the students have a common type of schooling. Though there  are public and private schools in Denmark the attraction is  more   in public schools .The private school is not  so expensive as we have here in Nepal. Therefore, to eliminate the great gap between public and private schools in Nepal it is essential to have common school system which could provide equality of access to children from all social strata.  Its main features will be  a common admission policy, common facilities for all the schools in the country. Educational quality, equity, democracy, and promotion of national integration should be main thrust of this type of school so that no parents should feel that their children are not going to private schools. To promote social cohesion and national integration the common school system is a must. Social justice can also be achieved through such type of system.

Secondly, the government should devise a scheme through which the poor students should also be able to have education in all the private  schools. For this 50 percent seats for such students should be reserved either free of cost or with minimum fee depending on their socioeconomic condition.

 Thirdly, the government should take strong measures to improve the quality of education in public schools and if this is not going to happen then, I think, the best solution would be to nationalize the whole education system or to privatize all public schools under certain uniform regulations. By uniform regulation I mean a norm should be established that a certain school with such and such facilities can charge such and such amount of tuition fee by not crossing the upper or lower limit. Besides, there should be uniformity in the course of study, examination pattern, medium of instruction and administration. This regulation should be equally applicable to all the private schools in the country.

TGQ 4   Coming back to politics, well we know that  some way or the other you too have been linked to politics. You being an educationist and your consort Madame Chitralekha Yadav, is the honourable deputy speaker of the Lower House of Parliament. Tell us how you two having trained in two diametrically opposed profession fair together? How often you two discuss politics and existing educational system?

Dr. Yadav: Directly or indirectly, every conscious citizen in Nepal is involved in some sort of politics. Being an intellectual how can I remain aloof of politics. Education itself is politics. Key decision-makers of the country decide the type and nature of curriculum. Regarding the day to day problems of politics, I have to be attentive to the visitors and share their concerns. 

I  also share knowledge and information with madam deputy speaker on matters of local constituency, and national and international concerns. Especially, the problem of the constituency is complex, as there are too many problems and too little resources to solve them. It is here sharing ideas and devising strategies to address the problems of people there are essential. Most often we discuss about the sad state of affairs of public schools. We are very much concerned about the deteriorating standard of education in public schools where majority of poor and powerless sections of people send their children for education.

TGQ 5 How media could be of help in arresting the current trend in education so that it goes in right direction ?

Dr. Yadav: Today lifelong education is much talked about. Lifelong education starts with the beginning of life and ends with the end of life. Education does not terminate at the end of formal schooling. In fact, it starts with that. Formal schooling is only part of total education and, as such, it has to be integrated with other educative agencies and activities. The media for mass communication such as newspapers, radio, and TV are also parts of the community resources that have a vital share in the process of lifelong education. An integral part of total education involves socialization outside the formal education. It has the characteristics of flexibility, diversity, and dynamism. Alternative ways of acquiring education are necessary in place of full time institutionalized and teacher – centered form of learning. The education being provided today in our part of country is based on traditional curriculum which once given sticks to about 10 years. The case in example is the curriculum of proficiency level of TU. But with the proliferation of electronic media and the findings of new researches going on all over the world bring change in content and its basic approach of methodology. Such information and the basic approach of teaching strategy are being coped by the media. Therefore, the role of media in improving the quality of education is immense. Besides, the education of 21st century would be without traditional curriculum (teacher-based curriculum) will have to teach about the unknown. So the curriculum of unknown depends on the access of information channelized through the latest research findings, which is possible only by the unfettered media and third wave information technology.

| Headline | National | 5 Question | 2nd Impression | International | Past |