According to Ove Fritz Larsen of the Danish embassy in Kathmandu, which coordinates a network of the nine donor agencies supporting SSRP through a basket fund, a new precondition of ´an improved system of information flow´ has been set for withdrawal of the aid suspension. [break]
Larsen told myrepublica.com that they put forth the new precondition for aid resumption following pooling partners´ complaints about unavailability of necessary information. “They (officials at the Ministry of Education) must provide required information regarding the execution of SSRP if they want us to withdraw our decision of aid suspension,” Larsen said.
The donor agencies have finalized the Joint Financial Arrangement (JFA) with the Ministry of Education (MoE), under which the latter requires to inform all the pooling partners about the execution of SSRP during their meetings. The donor agencies have accused MoE officials of not providing even a single piece of information so far.
“We, for an instance, have learnt through some informal channels that 25 percent of primary-level students have not got school textbooks yet in the current academic year,” Larsen said. “The officials, however, never share this sort of information despite our persistent requests.”
Earlier, the pooling partners for SSRP had sought the sacking of Ram Chandra Kushwaha from the post of education minister for his alleged involvement in irregularities in distributing quotas of relief teachers and legal action against officials at Janak Shiksha Samagri Kendra Limited (JSSKL) held guilty by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) for procuring education materials without the required bidding process.
In an attempt to address the donor agencies´ concerns, the government had dismissed Kushwaha as education minister and constituted a probe committee led by National Planning Commission (NPC) member Dr Tirtha Raj Khaniya to look into issues of financial irregularity in distributing quotas of relief teachers, especially in schools in the Tarai.
The donor agencies are waiting for the report of the Khaniya committee to decide whether to resume funding. Besides that, as Larsen says, they are expecting the government to take necessary action against all those found guilty by the CIAA for procuring materials without due process.
With the donors´ new prerequisite, resumption of funding for the government´s ambitious project to overhaul the country´s education system appears unlikely even after the dismissal of Kushwaha and constituting of the probe committee. “We hope that the education ministry will take our concern into a serious consideration,” Larsen said.
MoE officials, however, deny the charge that they have not provided required information to the donors. “We have provided all the information we could,” Lekhnath Poudel, assistant spokesperson of MoE, said. “It is natural that we cannot share every piece of information right in the process of planning.”
Poudel further argued that the JFA should clearly state what ´required information´ means.
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