EDUCATION POLICIES AND PLANS

Major Reform Agendas in School Sector Reform Programme (SSRP) 

School Education System Introduction of eight years basic and four years secondary education.

Introduction of technical and vocational stream beginning at grade 9 

Provision of alternative mode of schooling up to higher secondary level with equivalent status as formal education and certification through the same National Examination Board. School Provision 

Planned distribution of schools based on defined norms and criteria. Institutionalized (Private) Schools 

Terms of Partnership between the local government and the private providers; 

Exploring possibilities to run school through cooperatives; 

Regulatory framework to ensure access, equity and quality. Free Education 

Provision of free education gradually up to secondary. Provision of Education through Local Government 

Ensuring the right to basic education through formal or alternative modes; 

Local governments (VDC, Municipality and DDC) assuming education planning functions during the transition. Accountability Model 

Agreement between schools and the government: schools obliged to meet agreed learning outcomes and the government obliged to provide the minimum enabling conditions Technical Functions 

Harmonization of technical functions directing towards defined goals through one door policy and Technical Board; 112 

Capacity development and integration plan for core technical functions. Enabling Conditions 

Define minimum enabling conditions and ensure that they are met in all schools. Instructional Process 

Introduction of trilingual policy including mother tongue instruction in the early grades of basic education; 

Introduction of Multi-grade teaching (MGT) as pedagogical choice; 

Introduction of CAS with no holdbacks in basic education through a rigorous remedial support system. Teacher Management and Development 

Introduction of decentralized teacher selection and recruitment system; 

Qualifications upgrading for basic and secondary teachers including head-teachers; 

Mandatory requirement of Teacher Preparation Course to enter the teaching profession; 

Preparation of specialized teachers for multi-grade teaching, special needs education, tri-lingual education and education in mother tongue; 

Provision of study leave to upgrade qualification and incentive packages for voluntary retirement; 

Teacher professional development through both long and short term means: mandatory one month in-service training in at least every five years; 

Separate position for head-teacher in fully-fledged schools; 

Appointment of head-teacher on a contractual basis for a specified period. Mandatory provision of management training for head-ship; 

Separate level-in-charge in 1-12 schools. Certification and Examinations 

National, regional and district public examinations at the end of grades 12, 10 and 8; 

Establishment of National Examination Board. Entitlement 

Protection of children’’s rights to free education through affirmative actions; 

Implementation of free education beginning 2009 academic year in grade 6 and gradually up to grade 10; 113 

Encouraging local governments to adopt compulsory education policy. Inclusive Schooling 

Promotion of inclusive practices through regular schools (with inclusive orientationprovided with technical assistance and teacher training) and special schools; 

Provisions for maternity and paternity leave, substitute teachers. Financing 

Establishing financing in education as a shared responsibility between and among the governments (national and local) and the school community; 

The ratio of teacher salaries to non salary costs gradually scaled down to 70 to 30 percent. Review 

Establishment of Review Office 114 Human Resource Development for MoE: NCED Training Policy, 2062 

Existing basic qualification in the case of primary teachers will be upgraded. 

10-month teacher preparation course as pre-service training on the top of prescribed academic qualification will be made mandatory for primary, lower secondary and secondary teachers at the entry point. 

Teaching license will be made pre-requisite for the teaching profession in the school system. Also, provision of license renewal will be established. 

Teacher selection process will gradually be localized in line with the spirit of the Local Self Governance Act (LSGA) and Education Act). 

All untrained working teachers in the school system will be trained in 10-month training at the earliest possible time line. 

Training, licensing and professional development process will be linked to each other in order to consolidate the teacher development provision at all levels of school education. 

Short-tern, training, refresher training, and recurrent training will be accredited as a part of the certification training program. 

Effective training curriculum and materials for in-service and pre-service teacher training will be developed and implemented. 

Well-qualified, trained, and committed trainers will provide teacher training. 

Training facilities will be ensured, improved and upgraded for the availability of conducive-learning environment. 

Appropriate measures and efforts will be adopted to improve the efficiency of training management at all levels and institutions. National Centre for Educational Development will be developed as a role model. 

Monitoring and post training support scheme will be implemented as a quality assurance measure in training. 

For the continual improvement in training, National Centre for Educational Development and its institutions at various levels will carry out research, monitoring, and evaluation activities. 

Performance indicators will be developed and used for the assessment of the work of training institutions, schools and teachers 

A continuous evaluation system will be applied to assess trainees' achievement in the training. 

Serious efforts will be made to maintain gender sensitive and gender balanced behaviours and practices in all programs. 115 

Job-induction training would be considered as pre-requisite for newly appointed managers (Class II and Class III), including school heads of all levels before holding the position. 

Educational Management Training will be mandatory to all educational managers and school heads working at all levels. 

The opportunities for continuous professional development will be created through refresher training programs and self-learning materials and on-site support schemes. 

For the purpose of promoting motivation level and morale of the managers and also for encouraging high performers, special deployment scheme will be devised and implemented. 

Special package program will be designed and implemented for trainer preparation, trainer development and motivation to ensure qualified, trained and committed training professionals in the training institutions. 

Teacher training system will be unified and strengthened by merging then training institutions National Centre for Educational Development, Distance Education Centre, and Secondary Education Development Centre into a single umbrella. 

The Institutional Linkage with international and national training institutions and agencies will be specified along with the roles and responsibilities of each institutions and agencies. 

Zonal Teacher Training Coordination Committee (ZTTCC) will be established to ensure institutional collaboration, coordination and communication of training programs, involving representatives from both the public and private training institutions. 

National Centre for Educational Development will be authorized to hire experts from other professional institutions on the part time basis for technical support and technology transfer. 

National Centre for Educational Development system will be provided professional autonomy in order to enhance organizational effectiveness and institutional capacity. Note: NCED Training Policy is approved by MoE on Jeth 24, 2062 BS 116 Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Policy, 2063 Vision Creating supplementary/alternative ODL System to benefit with all the possible opportunities for the citizens belonging to diverse need contexts to give access to education and opportunities to acquire formal education and overall personality development especially to the deprived community, women and working people through distance mode Objectives 

Expanding full access to school and higher education to learners having diverse and special needs especially of out-of-school children, deprived groups, working people, housewives and so on through open and distance learning system as supplementary to the existing system of education. 

Improving the quality of conventional education through different kinds of support mechanisms and materials by the application of ICT. 

Promoting the life long learning, continuing education and professional development through open and distance learning system by applying mix mode delivery mechanism 

Establish a provision to provide skill-based education through customized courses to cater the needs of labor force seeking employment in the national and international job market 

Creating an avenue for skill certification and accreditation to preserve the traditional skills and customary learning of the tribal and indigenous community. Statements Agenda 1: Expanding access to education to learners of diverse needs 

An Open and Distance Learning (ODL) System for both school and higher education will be created to act as alternative to existing conventional education system in order to ensure fuller access of all interested learners belonging to various groups especially poor, women, deprived, marginalized citizens to education. 

Under the ODL system, there will be two separate streams of open education: viz., general and vocational with the provision of separate curriculum to be developed under the National Curriculum Framework for the country. Flexible learning practice will be introduced as a strategy to overcome various barriers to education, such as time, physical and pedagogical etc. 117 

The ODL system will be institutionalized by the creation of a Semi Autonomous High Level Council with mandates to policy formulation and overall execution at the national level. 

The government will take major role to finance for establishment of the system and collaboration with private, NGOs and other agencies will highly be encouraged to run the system for sustainability. Agenda 2: Improving quality of conventional education 

A special arrangement will be made to integrate the learning facilities under the ODL system into the conventional system of education in order to create varieties of opportunities for quality education. 

Various programmatic schemes such as application of appropriate media and learner support materials to benefit students of the conventional system; credit transfer system between open and conventional schooling, teacher development programs will be developed and implemented through the distance mode. 

The council will initiate and develop the programs and establish official collaboration with relevant agencies in the public and private sector for implementation and monitoring. 

Initial investment for such supplementary programs will be born by the government. At the same time private sector will be encouraged for large-scale implementation. Possibilities of public private collaboration will be explored and implemented in the execution of the programs. Agenda 3: Promoting continuing education and professional development 

Under the ODL system, a separate mechanism will be established to create various provisions for life long/continuing education and occupational skill upgrading by targeting to different actors working in various sectors and the community members. 

Different programs in areas like teacher development, afforestation, social awareness, civic education, health education, human rights education, child rights education, environment education will be developed and implemented through distance mode. 

The DEOL Council will coordinate the efforts of various agencies involved in the implementation of programs through distance mode for designing and planning of activities. At the sub-national level all relevant agencies and networks including the Community Learning Centres (CLCs) and the Tele-Centres will be utilized for the purpose of implementing such programs. 

In addition to the government investments in the targeted areas sponsors will be attracted to fund the programs. Further, fees will fund part of the costs in case of the registration based courses. The Council will mobilize all other possible sources of generating resources including the involvement of private sector. 118 Agenda 4: Establishing a system of knowledge and skill certification 

Special mechanism will be established under the ODL system for accreditation and certification of the skills in the vocational field and customary learning/knowledge in the general field of education acquired by citizens of diverse communities such as tribal and indigenous communities. 

Appropriate testing, customized remedial/bridging courses and counseling programs will be developed and organized to certify the skills and knowledge at the primary and secondary levels of education. 

A separate board will be created at the national level under the ODL system and the board will be made responsible for developing and organizing the testing, remedial and counseling programs in close coordination with relevant agencies like CTEVT and so on. 

Operational cost will be managed on the basis of cost recovery principle. Institutional linkages and networking will consolidated to utilize resources from various sources. Implementation Strategies Curriculum and Learning Material 

Curricula for open education (open schooling and higher education) will be developed within the national framework of curriculum and with the consultation of the Curriculum Development Centre and universities. Besides, curricula for other programs to be run under the ODL system will be developed and implemented by the council. 

Different sets of learning materials will be designed, adopted, reproduced and approved for the implementation by taking the consideration of better experiences at the international level. The materials will be gradually developed in different languages to meet the diverse demands of the clients. 

Different kinds of self learning materials (print, audio and audio visual and multimedia) for the ODL learners will be prepared to use in the classroom setting and to facilitate the independent style of learning. Institutional Arrangement and Human Resources 

A high level semi-autonomous DEOL Council will be established at the national level with all the legal and functional mandates to act as an apex institution in the field of open and distance learning. The council will stand in a two layers- a) governing body constituted with representation of all kinds of stakeholders and b) executing body dealing with overall implementation affairs. 119 

Five regional study centers by the administrative region will be created under the council and local level resource centers will be established in selected institutions presently dealing with training, research and education at the local level. 

The council will have own cadre system comprising a pool of professional and management staff at the national and regional level. Initially, the cadres can be selected from those working for universities and MOE system by applying standard selection procedures. 

The ODL system will be promoted with the recognition and affiliation to the aided community schools, institutional schools and other governmental and nongovernmental educational organizations. 

The DEOL council will be responsible and accountable for policy formulation; course and program approval; recognition and affiliation of the ODL institutes; certification/accreditation and implementation of ODL programs of the country. 

A number of existing schools and educational institutions will be identified / registered or affiliated as ‘‘open schools’’ that will operate in a flexible mode to work as study and support centre. These schools will work as a focal point for the ODL learner support. 

Technical and academic resources of the DEOL division of NCED will be utilized to initiate the preparatory activities for official establishment of the new ODL system. This mode of policy implementation will continue until the Council will be created. Certification and Accreditation 

A strong certification and accreditation mechanism will be set up by establishing a separate examination board to ensure the quality of ODL programs after the establishment of DEOL council. 

For certification and accreditation purposes, the written, oral, portfolio and practical oriented evaluation system will be applied. 

A system of credit transfer and accreditation will be developed so as to build a link with similar educational system, both nationally and internationally. Moreover, such a system will be developed to tie up with the technical/vocational education system. Learner Support System 

All kinds of academic support and technical backstopping to the schools and study centers will be provided by DEOL division of NCED through the ETCs at the initial stage of the implementation. 

Pool of experts and full time tutor will be available in central and regional study centers where as the local level study center will be facilitated by part time tutors. For learner support on/off line discussion between tutor to tutor, tutor to student, and 120 student to student will be extensively used. Besides these, the library facility, counseling, material delivery, student orientation will be provided. 

An effective learner support system will be put in place with face to face meeting of the learner and tutor and by the extensive use of new technologies and available media such as mail; telephone; internet; e-mail; tele conferencing/video conferencing etc. 

The open school system will be sustained by utilizing the local expertise and resources (trainers, teachers, head-teachers or lecturers) as facilitators for the learner support. Media Application 

All kinds of available mass media and print media will be extensively used for designing and delivery of ODL materials. 

Electronic media should be applied with the use of new technologies such as internet, email, teleconferencing and video conferencing, multimedia and on/off line discussion. 

The provisions of mandatory broadcast of educational materials on all types of Radio, FM and TV channels for a fixed duration will be formulated. 

Separate Educational Radio and TV are to be set up by refurnishing and renovating the existing audio and visual studios of DEOL division of NCED with the collaboration of the international donor agencies. 

Existing TV and Radio channels are to be utilized for delivering the ODL programs until there will be a separate media station/network created under the academy. Linkage and Networking 

For sustainability of ODL system in the country, institutional linkage and networking with national and international ODL institutions/ organizations such as SACODiL, IGNOU, OU, ICDE and so on will be consolidated and established materials design and delivery and for human resource development. 

The cooperation and collaboration of SACODiL will be sought for preparing ODL curricula and materials to meet the standard set up by it. 

The ODL system will be sustained with collaboration and partnership of NGOs and INGOs. 

Local community involvement for management and supervision; monitoring and follow up will be ensured. 121 Funding and Budgeting 

A sustainable resource management and funding mechanism will be set up and required provisions are to be made to establish a funding scheme for ODL system of the country. 

The Department of Education will have responsibility of funding support to open schooling and the University Grant Commission (UGC) will be responsible for managing funding support to the institutes of higher education. They are also responsible for channeling the resources, and to provide incentives and scholarships to students under open schooling. 

The government grant will be obtained as sole source of funding for ODL institutes at the initial stage but gradually some special schemes of cost recovery of the resource mobilization- tuition fee, material production; support and grants from NGOs and INGOs will be obtained. 

Realizing the disadvantageous position of the target audience the major portion of the financing will be taken care by the government. At the same time, options will be explored to share costs at the local level. This will take the form of subsidy in the educational materials, scholarships, and other supports. 

The partnership with private agencies, collaboration with non-government organizations and linkages with international institutions will systematically be introduced for self-sustainability of ODL system. 

Private sector and local bodies, NGOs and INGOs will be involved for production and distribution of instructional materials. Note: Approved by MoE on Pous 20, 2063 BS. 122 NFEC Policy 2063 (2007 AD) 

Non-Formal Education will be expanded to provide the academic and practical knowledge, skills and information to different age and levels of learners. 

NFE equivalent to FE will be provided to those who are deprived of educational opportunity or who dropped out of education 

Special provisions will be made to increase access to education 

Development and distribution of curricular and learning materials will gradually be decentralized and localized. 

Community Learning Centres (CLCs) will be developed as the centre of educational activities to ensure equitable access to quality non-formal education for all. 

The implementation of monitoring, supervision and evaluation of NFE programs will be decentralized. 

Networking and coordination and partnership will be maintained with the agencies involved in NFE for resource generation and mobilization 

Inclusive education policy will be adopted to ensure access, quality and co-existence 

Common database will be developed and shared among the agencies involved in NFE programs. 

Training, research, self monitoring and innovation will be included in NFE programs to build the capacity of the human resources involved in the NFE programs. 

Government and non-government organizations and private agencies will be mobilized to meet the targets of ‘‘Education for all.’’ 

The financial management of non-formal education will be made compatible with the economic condition and policy of the government. 

Local bodies will play the regulatory role for the management of non-formal education. Any of the modalities mainly from the following four will be applied to implement NFE programs: 

NFEC will coordinate and collaborate with government, non-governmental, and international organizations to create cooperative environment among the agencies involved in NFE programs. 

The literacy campaign will be developed as the main policy strategy for the eradication of illiteracy and local agencies will be made responsible for the program. 

The agencies involved in NFE will develop their policies and strategies within the framework of the policies and strategies included in this policy document. Note: NFEC policy is approved by Council of Ministers/Cabinet on Magh 25, 2063 BS. 123 TEVT Skill Development Policy, 2064 As per the findings of various studies and researches, the majority of Nepal's youth of school age group leave school without completing the study of class ten. Children of this age group, outgoing from the school, could not have been competent to conduct economic activities. Relevant short term training courses, which would provide vocational skills to the literate manpower, are not easily available. Moreover, there are also notable number of youths who have either not been to school or not have an opportunity to obtain technical education or vocational trainings. The situation seems more serious and complex while adding those people who have been suffered from conflict and deprived of passing normal productive livelihood. It is necessary to make involvement of the youth and adult manpower who were taken out or not admitted to the school, illiterate and not obtained any kind of skills either technical education or vocational training of income generating activities for their livelihood. In this context, due to the lack of productivity of the manpower involved in domestic or overseas employment, various problems are appeared in employment sector. As a result of low productivity, there is negative effect on employment opportunity and income generation; hence, no expected improvement has been realized in respect of the people falling below the poverty line. In this out look, it seems necessary to expand nation wide an opportunities of technical education and vocational training. It is required to provide skills oriented education and training to the productive men power of the country so as to make them adequately competent in vocational and professional areas as per the needs. It is expedient, in present contest that to create conducive environment for providing an opportunities of education and training to those persons, who are deprived to get minimum opportunity of productive employment, self employment and subsistence. Major target of this policy is to expand the training programs and to ensure the excess and inclusion of women, Dalits, ethnic groups, Madhesi and deprived communities of all areas in training programs. Both the objectives, as mentioned above, may increase the participation of targeted groups in income generating activities or profession as such programs would equally be conducted in all groups or level of Nepali society. Under this program, all citizens residing in different areas of the country who are interested to obtain training but can not pay for or access to it, may participate in entry training in the beginning; a policy will be pursued to provide different types of scholarship to these groups as financial assistance so as to encourage such groups in obtaining productive employment. This policy will be tending towards the skills training for the development and promotion of market oriented employment. This may create a 124 motion for the development of training system, whereby the number of training opportunities is expected to increase fourfold over the next ten years. Usual development of new training courses will be organized in a revamped system (National Skills Testing Board) of Nepal Vocational Qualifications. This Board shall, upon framing a policy for conducting a formal examination and providing a certificate thereof, make coordination on all types of vocational trainings. The Board shall also conclude complete analysis of the progress of the worker with a combination of initial training, subsequent occupational experience and further training of various kinds. All modes and places of learning, formal or informal, in school or on the job, will be organized in a single system which will be useful for progression and transition. This policy may address the needs and demands of Nepali citizens who wish to reveal their productive talents, training providers associations who wish to engage in the development of human resources and employers who are keen to increase their productivity and provide work and income to their fellow citizens. Major five objectives focused by the policy are as follows: 1 Expansion: To expand the training opportunities and services. 2 Inclusion and access: To make access of training to all needy citizens and to ensure the opportunity of training to all. 3 Integration: To integrate various training modes and training providers into one system. 4 Relevancy: To link training contents and outcomes of the training with economic demands. 5 Funding: To ensure sustainable funding to create such an environment where the technical education and vocational training market can take off. In order to implement and follow the objectives set out in this policy, the strategies felt appropriate have been summarized in following tables: Table 13 Nepal's Technical Education and Vocational Training Skills Development Policy, 2064 Achievements Key Policy areas Strategies To citizens Desirous Nepali citizen shall have an opportunity of free of charge training of at least three months for employment; in addition life-long learning opportunities will be available on fee-paying basis. Massive expansion of training opportunities o To be followed the system of flexibility, deregulation, autonomy and decentralization. o Provide free start up support to organized and reliable training providers. o Provide assurance of quality outcome (in line with national vocational quality standard). o Make arrangement of objective performance, transparency and standard marks as elements of consumers protection. 125 Achievements Key Policy areas Strategies To training providers Various training providing institutions will be encouraged to support the children outside the school in skills development and development of national workforce. Inclusion of and access for all citizens who need training. o Assurance of tuition fees and subsistence allowance for the citizens of those groups who are deprived from minimum facilities. o Recognition of prior learning for open assessment. o Set out occupational standards for entry level. o Conduct preparatory courses for mainstreaming and to produce teaching supportive materials. To business community Competent and confident workers will be supplied in massive scale; hence national productivity will be increased. Firm integration of various modes of training and pathways. o Prepare framework of vocational qualification and develop it as guidelines for formal and informal training and learning. o Bridging courses into general education in order to make equivalent to it. o Promote specialized occupational career ladders. o Prepare career guidance of the workforce for life long learning so as to support to their career development. In essence Strong and active market will be developed for technical education, vocational training and skill development. Emphasis on competency of initial learners and relevancy of courses. o Prepare licensed trainers with industrial exposure. o Need identification and preparation of curricula based upon occupational standards. o Make arrangement of practical training (on the job and projects) o Develop a system of independent assessment and certification. Sustained funding sources and mechanisms o Massive increase in government investment. o Make arrangement of three months training without fees. o Donor assistance will be concerted. o Make arrangement of fund for technical education and vocational training in district level. o Explore possible contributions from former trainees who obtained training on scholarship. Note: TEVT Skill Development Policy is approved with the decision of Council of Ministers/Cabinet on Aswin 3, 2064 BS. 126 References: Central Bureau of Statistics, (2002). National population census 2001 national report (Vol. II). Kathmandu: Author. Central Bureau of Statistics, (2066). Nepal in figures, 2065. Kathmandu: Author. Central Bureau of Statistics. (2009). Report on the Nepal labour force survey 2008. Kathmandu: Author. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). (2010). The world factbook. Retrieved June 27, 2010, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/np.html. CTEVT. (2066). A profile of technical and vocational education and training providers in Nepal. Sanothimi, Author. Department of Education. (2009/10). Flash report I 2009/10. Sanothimi: Author. Higher Secondary Education Board. (2066). Higher secondary education 2009/10 [2066]. Kathmandu: Author. Ministry of Education. (2009). School sector reform plan 2009-2015. Kathmandu: Author. Ministry of Education. (2010 [2067]). Students studying abroad in self finance based on no objection letter issued. Kathmandu: Scholarship Section Ministry of Education. (2067). Major programmes/projects of MoE. Kathmandu: Foreign Aid Coordination Section. Ministry of Finance. (various years). Red book. Kathmandu: Author. Nepal Sanskrit University. (2065/66). Annual report on Nepal Sanskrit university. Dang: Author. Office of the Controller of Examination. (2066). SLC results 2066. Kathmandu: Author. Teacher Service Commission. (2067 [2009/10]). Distribution of teaching license, 2061- 2066. Kathmandu: Author. United Nations Development Programme, (2009). Human development report, 2009. NewYork: Author. University Grant Commission. (2067). University grant commission annual report 2065/66 (2008/09). Kathmandu: Author. University Grant Commission. (2067). University grant commission annual report 2065/66 (2008/09). Kathmandu: Author. Note: All the information related to Central Level Agencies of MoE, Universities, CTEVT and Libraries are presented in this publication as per the reporting of the respective agencies.