Despite higher enrollment compared to private schools, very few students at public schools pass exams and advance to higher level. Last year, nearly 75 percent of private school students passed the exam while only 25 percent from public schools succeeded."The quality of education in the public schools is deteriorating day by day," said Suprabhat Bhandari, president of the Guardians' Association Nepal (GAN). "Interestingly, the ministers, parliamentarians, policy makers, government officials, public school teachers and others prefer to enroll their children in private schools instead of working to uplift the quality of education at public schools," he said.
The GAN has submitted a memorandum five years ago urging the Ministry of Education to direct all government officials to enroll their wards in public schools and work toward enhancing the quality of education at government run schools.
"We are planning to put pressure on the staff at the Ministry of Education and public school teachers to send their children to public schools in the first phase," said Bhandari. "We will knock on the doors of the concerned authorities till the beginning of the new session," he claimed. "The government should introduce by-laws to improve the performance of the public schools."
The new academic session begins on April 15. However, the government authorities have not taken any significant steps to promote the quality of education in public schools. The problem is very rampant in the urban areas compared to the rural areas.
Hari Prasad Lamsal, spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, admitted that the quality education in the public school is a cause for concern. "We need to amend the Education Act in order to better the quality of education in the public schools," he said.
The problem lies in the way some schools are managed, according to Lamsal. "Though some public schools are doing very good, large majority of schools are lagging behind," he said. "Overall environment of schools, including teaching learning process, curriculum, training, management and means and language of teaching, are vital to change the performance of public schools."
Though the education regulation provisions the medium of teaching in English or Nepali language or both in the public schools, the public schools have failed to do so and people believe that English medium schools are better than the ones where teaching takes place in Nepali language.
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