School Education Act is under consideration in Cabinet: Minister Rai

KATHMANDU: Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Ashok Kumar Rai, asserted that he has given priority to filling up the gap related to the Acts and legislations in the education sector.

The draft of the School Education (Federal) Act is currently under consideration at the thematic committee of the Council of Ministers, Education Minister Rai shared in today’s meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR)’s Education, Health and Technology Committee.

He informed the committee that the government is preparing to make a policy decision for ending the situation of the suggestions not coming from the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, and the Ministry of Finance, while formulating Acts, and regulations.

According to him, a concrete decision needed to be taken to rise above the tendency of the file of the related legislation not being cleared on time and getting stuck in the process despite the Prime Minister and the line minister’s desire to get them passed from the parliament on time.

The Education Minister stressed instilling thinking among the talented persons who are studying abroad and demonstrating their skills and capacity in the foreign land that their motherland is looking for their expertise.

“The lack of physical infrastructures and human resources is not the only problem in the education sector. The root of the problem lies in our mindset and thinking. That is why we have not been able to break the root of the problem,” he said.

Minister Rai viewed that the challenge of quality education cannot be faced until we are able to give the required number of teachers.

He complained that an adequate budget was not allocated to the education sector.

The ministry secretary Ram Krishna Subedi has stressed the need for bringing related laws for the education sector to keep up with federalism.

Failure to pass the Federal Education Act and other related acts has made the matter worse, he said.

According to data presented by the ministry, 2.6 percent of children have dropped out of classes, and 7.8 percent repeated classes.

There is a need to add 53,158 quotas of school teachers, construct 28,000 school buildings, and provide technical education to 72 local levels, said the ministry. Seventeen percent of students have access to higher education at home.

Arrangements should be made for the proper curriculum creation, and organizing examinations and publishing results timely, the lawmakers suggested.