He says he “didn’t like” attending school and that’s the reason why he left his hometown Janakpur and entered Kathmandu to “pursue” his dreams.[break]
“My friends coaxed me to desert the school,” rues Magar, fixing a motorbike at the Anam Nagar-based garage that he works for. “I wish I had continued my studies.”
However, he thinks it’s too late now to re-enroll at a school. He makes Rs 2,500 per month, which is insufficient to buy him four square meals. He envies people donned in neat and clean ensembles setting out to assume their official jobs each morning as he “busies” himself with greasy spanners and tackles “fussy” customers.
Magar is one among the millions in Nepal who dropout from schools and resort to “blue collar” jobs. And by the time they realize that a grave mistake has been committed, they find it almost impossible to turn back to studies.
According to the Flash Report I published by the Department of Education (DoE), out of the 7.3 million students enrolled in Grade 1 to 10 in 2009/10, approximately five millions dropped out.
This paints a gloomy picture of the education system in Nepal. Educated people mean educated labor force. Only education helps to usher in positive changes in society and it ensures better health of citizens. If the aforementioned dropout epidemic continues, then this impoverished nation will further plunge into deeper crises.
Although government officials claim that the number of students leaving their studies has been on the wane, the 2009/10 report indicates that the country is likely to witness huge masses of uneducated populace.
“There’s been a decrease in the dropout rates. However, it’s not significant,” says Shankar Bahadur Thapa, under-secretary at the DoE. He added that the target of the government should be to retain cent percent students at all levels.
Thapa revealed that Nepal has expressed its commitment to realizing Education for All (EFA) goals framed by the World Conference on Education for All held in Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990. However, taking into consideration the whopping numbers of dropout students, it seems less likely for Nepal to materialize the EFA goals by 2015.
Digging into the report, percentages of students who opt to desert schools are high at Grades 1, 5, 8, and 10 (9.9, 7.4, 8.5, and 13% respectively), i.e., at the point of being promoted from one level to another.
According to Educationist Dr Bishnu Karki, “this is a transition period” after which most of students don’t continue their studies even if they pass out.
“The adverse effects that a country could face due to dropout students are many,” continues Karki who did his doctorate research on dropout students in Nepal.
He says Nepal is losing its huge investment on education because of dropout students. On top of that, the deserters tend to increase financial burden of the country because of their under-productivity.
“What makes the matter worse is they have high likelihood of being engaged in illicit activities that waters down the security situation of the country,” warns Karki.
He blames the current education system of Nepal for the exacerbation of the problems. However, socio-economic causes also can’t be sidelined.
Karki says that the decade-long Maoist insurgency spurred internal migration, and that also caused many students to suspend their studies.
“I agree that poor economic condition of the people isn’t letting their children to continue their studies. But the largest contributor is the country’s “faulty” education system,” asserts Karki, a former official with the Ministry of Education (MoE).
As soon as a child enrolls in Grade 1, Karki says, the tradition to appear for exams induces psychological fear in the child. And then the child finds himself/herself gripped by the fear of “failing” the exams.
“What has a child of 4 or 5 years of age got to do with exams?,” wonders Karki. The same continues all the way that ultimately makes the students dislike their schools and studies.
He suggests that the content-based education system of Nepal should be reformed and that skills-based education system should be introduced. According to him, “learning is a lifelong process,” and therefore, it should not be terminated abruptly at any levels by the culture of “passing” or “failing” exams. Rather, formal exams should be substituted by continuous assessment techniques where students should be provided enough room to improve before declaring them “failures.”
“The existing curriculum has become obsolete and hence new curricula must be developed,” says Karki
Also, teachers are no lesser contributors to this evils.
“There’s a false notion among teachers that “onetime teacher is a lifetime teacher,” says Karki, pointing out the need that teachers themselves should develop learning habits. He says they are nursing the same old doctrine where they still carry a stick in their hands as they enter classrooms.
“Wake up! The scenario has changed. Teaching and learning is a two-way process –interactive – where teachers should be open enough to learn from students as well,” says Karki.
Also, discriminatory practices in schools –both ethnic and gender-wise – must be wiped out.
He opines that if parents and teachers recognize the early symptoms that indicate the tendency of a student to abandoning his/her studies, the dropout numbers may dwindle.
“If a student starts to become irregular in classes, demonstrates weak performance, and joins peer groups to bully fellow students, his/her tendency to drop out is high,” says Karki. Therefore, these precursors should be taken into consideration.
Not only in terms of materializing EFA goals, the present education scenario also has it that Nepal lags far behind to realizing the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Goal No 2 of the MDGs states that all countries must ensure completion of a full course of primary schooling by 2015.
In accordance with Nepal’s commitment made at the UN Millennium Summit, it must comply with the MDGs. But in the present context, where 3.25 million students dropped out in Grade 1 to 5, the realization of MDGs seems a far cry.
Asked to comment, Janardan Nepal, spokesperson at the MoE, says the Ministry is launching campaigns on war-footing, and thus there is hope that the MDGs will be met on time.
“We’ve been launching Alternative School Program and Flexible School Program to re-enroll those students who left their studies,” says Nepal. He also informed that a new education Act was in the pipeline that would make education “compulsory.”
However, the MDG Report 2010 states “Hope dims for universal education by 2015, even as many poor countries make tremendous strides.”
Regarding the education budget, Nava Raj Rijal, an official at the Policy Analysis and Program Section of MoE, revealed that the last fiscal year’s education budget was Rs 46.61 billion, which is 16.3% of the total budget. “The budget allocation should have been 17%; otherwise it is satisfactory,” says Rijal.
At a time when the world’s educated masses are embracing rapid technological developments in various sectors, we are still finding it hard to “merely educate” our people. What all the stakeholders must understand is this dropout epidemic must be stemmed in order to lay even the basic foundation for development in Nepal.
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