Education, the blissful experience every human being is blessed with by nature is undeniably supreme.
After the two-third majority government failed to materialize the promises made to the people during the election time and took to dissolving parliament rather than facing showing the evidence of good deeds if any, the people who expected to get political stability if a single party is offered majority in the parliament got completely disappointed.
The country seems heading towards a worse platform for various international interest groups to exercise their power overtly now.
When all sectors have become the victim of collective irrationality, education has been affected the worse.
When the cabinet is reshuffled, generally education ministry is the least vied ministry.
The Education Ministry is expected to be visionary for all. It creates a vision of academic success for all students.
The ministry is expected to facilitate the planning, designing, researching and exploring innovative ideas.
The ministry is supposed to identify the prospective manpower needed for the country in 10, 20, 50, or 100 years.
It’s worth noting that the authority asked all schools and colleges to use the textbooks prescribed by the Curriculum Development Center(CDC).
Unfortunately, the visionless leadership placed at the top and the bureaucrats who envy the officials of other Ministry rather than enjoying and working for their own Ministry have so spoilt the environment that the ministries is seen most chaotic.
As in other sectors, the coronavirus pandemic induced crisis has revealed the hollowness underlying in the education sector as well.
First, the education authority of the country was the least responsive to the crisis induced by the pandemic. When the country enforced lockdown to curb and control the pandemic, the officials of the education ministry enjoyed the holidays hoping the pandemic would be over by the academic session break of the school that is March- April.
Then spokesperson of the Ministry of Education had told Khabarhub that the Ministry would start planning if the pandemic is not over in one month. (It’s remarkable that the coronavirus that first appeared in Wuhan China had shown no sign of receding even after four months by then, but the officials in Nepal expected it to be over in one month!)
The second instance of irrationality is noticeable in the indecisiveness the Ministry showed on directing the schools and colleges to handle the classes. Instead of making a concrete and realistic decision on its own, the Ministry seemed swayed by the street slogans of sister unions of the political parties.
The Ministry first asked the schools to start virtual classes. Then, listening to the unions, asked the parents not to pay for the online classes; again, it asked the schools to run the online classes and said they could claim the fee from the students.
These days most of the schools are run physically, yet the ministry of Health says the transmission risk is high whereas the education ministry has asked the authorities to decide on opening the schools consulting the local governments.
Worst and shameful irrationality is seen in the way the new curriculum is introduced at grade 11 this year.
Generally, prior to introducing the new curriculum, the course is introduced in a small and selected area. But, Nepal witnessed a humorous scenario.
Together with the enrollment in colleges started, the authority declared that the new course was to be enforced from the running session.
It’s high time that the curriculum of Grades 11 and 12 get changed as some subjects like English and economics have been teaching the same textbooks for more than two decades.
However, the way the new syllabus was introduced was unacceptable for various reasons: a. firstly, when the announcement of enforcing the new syllabus was made, the Ministry was still not sure how many subjects should the students reading in Grade 11 read.
The stubborn authority, probably with the hidden interest of commission, kept on reiterating the new syllabus enforced without going through the piloting phase had to be continued.
The students have been taught five subjects in grade 11 till now, but the new syllabus has the provision of six subjects.
The confused educationist asked the authority what to teach. “Let there be no confusion, the new curriculum for grade 11 will come into effect from this year,” then Minister of Education Giri Raj Mani Pokhrel declared on the second week of September, one month after the new session started.
On September 15 the Ministry of Education also told that the academic session would not be extended beyond mid-April, which meant there were only five months for the academic session but till then the curriculum was not fixed.
The Ministry directed schools to start teaching as per the new curriculum on August 17, but the textbooks were not ready yet.
It’s worth noting that the authority asked all schools and colleges to use the textbooks prescribed by the curriculum development center(CDC).
Doubtful that the new textbooks could be taught at least for the running session, many schools and colleges were confused on what to do yet guided by their conscience continued with the previous curriculum.
The stubborn authority, probably with the hidden interest of commission, kept on reiterating the new syllabus enforced without going through the piloting phase had to be continued.
Now many schools are teaching old courses, few are teaching a new course and some are still undecided on what to teach and have been teaching the common content of both old and new syllabus.
Lately, demanding the priority on hearing and seeking the Supreme Court’s help in helping hundreds of thousand students know what to read as the textbook, Bhagawata Aryal filed a case on October 14 against CDC’s decision about enforcing new course without enough preparation.
The inability to identify the priority and work on the best interest of the young learners by both the executive and judiciary organs of the states has jeopardized the students’ right to education and also raised concern over the rationality of the leadership.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Education directed all schools on October 19 to teach as per the new curriculum.
Soon, the judiciary also joined the mire the executives have dug for.
The Apex Court issued an interim order on November 5 and asked them not to follow the new curriculum till further notice. The court called both parties for discussion on November 11.
It failed to give any verdict on the day and the hearing was postponed to November 19.
Confused students and educators waited for the court to reach some conclusion but the hearing got postponed again for December 9. From December 9 the day for the hearing got postponed till December 21.
The case said to have got priority got postponed again for December 28 and the people are skeptical whether the case will get a final hearing and verdict on December 28.
The inability to identify the priority and work on the best interest of the young learners by both the executive and judiciary organs of the states has jeopardized the students’ right to education and also raised concern over the rationality of the leadership.
These are just instances to show the chaos lying in the education sector. Every sector is equally suffering due to the leadership that is neither responsible, accountable and responsive, nor considerate of the concerns of the voiceless now.
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