The youth with a clear purpose in life find it hard to fulfill their dreams in Nepal.
In recent years, a growing number of students have approached me for migration certificates or recommendation letters to leave the country and study abroad. To the questions, ‘Why do you want to leave your parents and homeland and go abroad? Why don’t you study in Nepal?’, they had answers or counter questions that explained the thought process behind their decision. ‘A four-year bachelor’s program takes five years to finish,’ ‘The course I want to study is not offered in Nepal,’ ‘The curriculum is outdated.’ In short, the youngsters have lost faith in the tertiary education and the education system of the homeland. The youth with a clear purpose in life find it hard to fulfill their dreams in Nepal. Losing trust is losing a connection or a bond, be it in a relationship, in an organizational setting, or in more extensive scenarios, trust in the national system itself.
Students’ life abroad
Nineteen-year-olds flying away in pursuit of their dreams, leaving their parents and all that has been dear to them, is a very sentimental scene from one perspective. Incessant thoughts of loneliness, future uncertainties, financial crunch, social pressure, and family pressure load heavily in their heads. The tender and growing youngsters immerse themselves in a new culture and environment, earn their living, and learn to spend every penny very calculatedly. Each penny is spent only after giving much thought to it. Some are lucky enough to get generous scholarships and enjoy a more unburdened life, while others have wealthy parents who can afford to pay for their upkeep abroad. However, most of them go with limited scholarships and rely on their own meager earnings. They find a new identity in the new setting. Some gain momentum in their new life and thrive in the much-advanced education system and curriculum of the first world countries. Some empathetically, some contemptuously, and others helplessly raise their voice to improve the tertiary education system of their homeland.
From another angle, even after the rigorous earn-and-learn opportunity in the first world countries, many face the next phase of the challenge – the expiration of student visas. What next? The bank balance is just enough to pay the bills for another month or two. Join a master’s program and extend the student visa? After the master’s program, the life ahead still remains uncertain for some as they depend on their employer to extend their visa, while others do discover a new life. There are struggles both abroad and in the homeland; they are just different in nature.
However, the main rationale behind these young aspiring students choosing to struggle abroad rather than in their homeland is that they have lost trust in the education system here.
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Regaining the trust of the students
In regaining the trust, it narrows down to the operation of prominent universities in Nepal. A few simple steps would suffice to gain a little confidence from the utterly disappointed students with aspirations. Students can stretch their expectations depending on their dreams and interests, but common expectations are not gigantic or unachievable. Goodwill and firm leadership of the responsible guardians/authorities of the educational system and the universities will suffice to bring about the long due reformation in Nepal’s higher education.
Nationally-determined academic year and well-aligned university academic calendar
A nationally-determined academic year and well-aligned academic calendar in all the universities of the country set the foundation for quality higher education. The most basic expectation from a university is a well-worked-out academic calendar. Our neighboring countries, India and China, strictly follow the academic calendar. Correction: why go to neighboring countries? Some universities of our own are able to have an academic calendar and follow it in most of the programs they run. As a matter of fact, students get more than a month of academic year-end holidays. However, each university seems to be developing its academic year independently. Therefore, the academic year varies from university to university, and even the courses. A well-worked-out academic year at the national level and a strictly followed university calendar will allow admissions to take place on time, the annual exams to follow the stipulated timeline, and the results to be published within a month or two. Is it a utopian idea to suggest this commonly practiced system?
Weak curriculum
There is a growing gap between the professional needs and the content of the curriculum. Graduates often find themselves requiring much more than what they covered in the curriculum to be relevant and competent in the professional arena. Here, I don’t overlook the fact that the courses are often approached from merely an exam perspective. Therefore, smart students can secure a degree by skimming through the so-called ‘question bank’ (I bet no one cheats during exams!). Hence, the affiliated colleges that run the programs have to do extra repair work on the curriculum, offering the students noncredit courses, additional workshops, research training, research publications, and lab experiments to equip the students for a professional life ahead. A way forward for the syllabus perhaps is to delve deep into the subject rather than cover a wide range of topics superficially.
Align professional world expectations in the curriculum
Two booming market sectors contributing to the economy of Nepal are business and IT. It’s not surprising that many foreign universities have found their place in Nepal to respond to the corporate and technological needs of businesses here. And the job providers are primarily the private sector. Thanks to the growing number of entrepreneurs and the startup brains of Nepal. But what should not be ignored is that foreign universities don’t seem to offer pure science courses. The well-established lab facilities of natural science are limited to a handful of colleges in the country. Microbiology and Physics are subjects with great scope that can contribute to research and innovation in the country. However, job opportunities can be widened only with proactive steps at the national level. There isn’t any convincing reason for the private sector to recognize the degree if the national regulators at the ministerial level don’t recognize the degree as a requirement and pave the way for young graduates to establish themselves in Nepal. After all, researchers are the think tank of development. What a pity they are not given priority, and they sadly fly away!
Missing link of accountability
Who do these young students go to when their basic expectations of higher education are unmet? Locking down offices and protests have neither helped transform the tertiary education sector nor initiated timely changes in the universities. Who is accountable to whom? Is the university accountable to the students? Or is it to the legal system? Who is the watchdog that can ensure that the aspiring young students study in Nepal? Who will bell the cat?
And yet, it’s not that bad! A contextual hope for today!
Despite the frustrations being vented by many young people who wish good for themselves and the education system in Nepal, there are positive sides to look at. Since the last academic year, some departments at the biggest university of Nepal have already published their academic calendar for certain courses and followed it. With the renewed approach to earning while learning, the students are able to continue their professional and academic life simultaneously. Affiliated private colleges have become innovative and adaptive in executing it well. A good number of students studying in Nepal are able to work and study, balancing both effectively. With this, bona fide students can support their own education and even save some of their earnings as they reach the final years. Another consoling development in recent years has been the growing number of young entrepreneurs with their innovative startups becoming job creators.
The young, committed, and hard-working students who prioritize education, innovation, and research are the present and future of development. They are the torchbearers of progress, shaping a promising tomorrow with their unwavering dedication to learning and discovery.
(The article is a cumulative sentiment expressed by many students who opted to study in Nepal and also who chose to go abroad for university studies.)
