The Ministry of Education (MoE) has selected Kailai, Banke, Kapilvastu, Rautahat and Siraha districts, one from each of the five development regions, for establishing residential schools along the model of Buddhanilkantha School in Kathmandu, officials said."These schools will be of international class," said Lav Deo Awasthi, planning division chief at MoE.
The schools will cover the disadvantaged groups in those regions, and the five districts were chosen with the aim of developing an education culture among locals where the least value is attached to schooling compared to their other necessities, he said.
The out-of-school rate in the tarai among the 5 to 16 years age group is 31 percent, rather worse than the national average of 25 percent. Likewise, the out-of-school rate for girls of the same age group in the region is the worse of all at 33 percent. The rate for boys is 28.8 percent, according to the Educational Flash Report of 2014/15.
The reasons for children being out of school vary, as reflected in earlier studies, Awasthi mentioned.
For instance, the out-of-school respondents in the Living Standard Survey in 2010/11 explained their reasons for not going to school in various ways. As per the survey, 30 percent reported that their parents did not want to send them to school, while 25.5 percent said they had to work at home.
Some 17.2 percent had simply expressed their unwillingness to attend school whereas for another 7.3 percent schooling was too expensive. Disability barred another 3.4 percent.
Another report published jointly by the government and UNICEF in 2013 stated that as many as 189,000 children between 5 and 15 years are out of school in eight districts of the central tarai.
As the national budget this year has emphasized the need of establishing the world class schools, the ministry and the Department of Education (DoE) are working on the design and capacity of the proposed schools with a view to begin construction within this fiscal year.
DoE Director Khagendra Nepal said that guidelines were being prepared to regulate such schools. For now, the authorities are considering two models for the schools.
"Whether to spread several chapters of a single school or develop them from the existing ones is still undecided," said Nepal.
Out-of-school children of 5-16 years age group
Nepal- 25%
Tarai- 31%
Valley- 16%
Hills- 19.6%
Mountains- 21%
Related story
E-learning centers in Banepa community schools
