Such scenes, which are commonplace at the sophisticated private schools of Kathmandu, would have become the norm by 2022 even for children of the poor studying in the remotest villages, as per the government's aim.
In a departure from the seven years-long School Sector Reform Plan (SSRP) at December end, the Ministry of Education (MoE) is mulling a School Sector Development Plan (SSDP) that would basically work to guarantee quality education for all by sometime between 2016-2022.
The current enrollment rate of school-age children in grade one is 96.6 percent as per the government's latest flash report. But the dropout rate is still high, with the reasons for dropout varying from student to student. SSDP would work to enhance quality in education, Lav Dev Awasthi, Planning Division chief at MoE, said.
"Between 2009 to 2015, we achieved the target of increasing the access of children to school. The target now is that nobody drops out of school," said Awasthi.
In a bid to guarantee the constitutional right of free basic education, the federal government would bear the cost of basic education. The government has made a preliminary estimate of Rs 700 billion to Rs 1 trillion for making schools entirely learner friendly.
Educationist Vishnu Karki said SSRP helped provide resources to schools . Now, SSDP will focus on utilization of those resources.
"While trying to improve student performance, we increased the number of teachers, built schools and made textbooks free. Later, we realized that all this was peripheral and the main focus should have been on what students learn," said Karki.
SSDP will not fall prey to any delay in necessary amendment of the Education Act, government officials claim. "The road ahead for SSDP will be clear as soon as the draft amendment is passed by parliament," Awasthi said.
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