Stalled School Education Bill and the inflated SEE results got priority in the media last week.

Kathmandu - The Education, Health and Information Technology Committee (EHITC) of the House of Representatives (HoR) is trying to finalize the School Education Bill (SEB), there was the news. According to the news, for-profit private schools can be operated as both companies and trusts; School Education Examination (SEE) to be conducted by Provinces; Teachers must undergo refresher training every five years; graduating in education no longer a prerequisite to become teacher, teaching license to be mandatory; the District Education Coordination Unit to remain under Provinces; Local level grants to be cut if school merger decision is not implemented; were the main provisions the Committee made a consensus upon. The committee also made a consensus to make pre-schooling (called ECED) for two years and to make it a part of ‘school structure’. According to Setopati news portal, although the EHITC has reached to the agreement on most issues, some issues are still to be resolved.

Nepali Congress (NC) has blocked the passing of the School Education Bill at the Committee in the last minute, the news stated. NC Parliamentary Party Chief Whip Shyam Kumar Ghimire blocked the Bill by saying that the ratio of teachers to face an open competition should be reduced (consensus so far made was 60 internal : 40 open) to make most temporary kind of teachers working in public schools permanent, mentioned the news.

Submitting a letter of appeal to Minister of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) Mr. Raghuji Pant and Speaker of HoR Mr. Devraj Ghimire, the student organization ANNFSU, affiliated to the CPN-UML, has demanded that 75 percent of teachers be appointed through open competition. It enables thousands of fresh young people an opportunity to compete for the jobs who want to become teachers and appoint qualified teachers, explained the organization. 

The implementation of federalism in education has been in disarray as an Education Act has not been promulgated even a decade after the implementation of the Federalism. It seems that the SEB has been delayed because the main political parties have been trying to appease their cadres in the guise of teachers, and investors of for-profit schools, rather than working for the good of education. It indicates that when the Bill reached the final stage in the EHITC, the Chief Whip of the ruling coalition NC, adjourned the Committee's deliberations for a week for which no explanation other than appeasing teachers can be considered. It seems that the confusion over the Bill will continue until the parties can move forward with a clear position on the issue of public schools, where the children of the majority Nepali population study. Even if the committee finalizes the Bill, the Act is unlikely to be promulgated immediately. The formal process of making the Act will take a few more weeks. Let alone making subsequent Rules and Regulations. 

Out of the 609 students from Shanti Model Secondary School, a public school in Tilottama Municipality, Rupandehi, who participated in the exam, 18 have achieved 4 GPA. Goma Shrestha, who lives in a 'tin hut' in a brick kiln in Sudal, Changunarayan Municipality, Bhaktapur, scored 4 GPA in the SEE, there was the news.

While the overall SEE results improved significantly this year, the pass rate in Madhesh Province has decreased significantly, the news published in Kantipur. According to the results, while 62 percent of students from across the country were graded, only 28 percent of students from Madhesh Province. This year, out of about 60,000 students from Madhesh Province who participated in the exam, more than 42,000, or 72 percent, are non-graded, the news mentioned.

Questions are being raised about the quality and sustainability of SEE, according to an editorial in the Kantipur. The editorial doubts that the quality of the examination itself may have been compromised in order to prove Prime Minister Mr. KP Oli's foretelling that preparations were being made to ensure that 70 percent of students pass the exam, true.

In contrary to it, an editorial 'SEE's Happy Message' has been published in the Gorkhapatra. Currently, the largest amount of the total Government budget is spent in the education sector. The largest portion of the sum allocated for education is spent in school level, and even if 50 percent of students fail to pass the SEE, raising questions about the overall spending on education. The editorial states that the practice of analyzing achievements of education by linking them to SEE results still exists.

In an article titled  'Evaluation of 4 GPA' written by Hari Prasad Poudel in Gorkhapatra, the most emphasis of students, parents, teachers, schools, investors, and government organizations is focused on how many students passed in educational institutions, with the interest of how many has achieved GPAs of 3.6 and above, he emphasized the need to work towards improving this.
Madhyabindu Municipality in East Nawalpurasi inspired from the successful 'Happy Curriculum' run in New Delhi, India, have implemented 'Our Happiness Curriculum', which teaches students to be happy in life and behavior, to be good, and to respect nature, rather than just reading books or writing on papers with the start of the school every day, the news published. Similarly, Janata Secondary and Janata Siddha Amar Secondary both schools of the Municipality have been operating for 20 years and have more than 600 students, but both have not been able to get a subject-teacher in the post of secondary level from the government side. Secondary school had to be run on the base of primary school teachers, the news mentioned.

In an article by Babukaji Karki in Gorkhapatra under the title of 'Post-SEE Education', he wrote that no matter what subject students study, the education should be enabling them to develop their physical, mental, social and other human qualities and become creative, diligent and skilled and have leadership potential and time management efficiency with confidence.

The Supreme Court has issued an interim order to allow students who have passed LLB from the Open University to participate in the Advocate's License Examination. A bench of Justices Kumar Regmi and Til Prasad Shrestha ordered not to deprive the candidates from filling out the form and participating in the examination, quoted the news.

A month after students and professors padlocked Tribhuwan University (TU) offices, TU officials have reached the TU campus in Kirtipur. After the NC-affiliated students vandalized and padlocked the offices, TU officials, who have been working daily from Pulchowk campus since 28 May, have reached to Smriti Bhawan to celebrate the 66th anniversary of TU.

After a bench of Supreme Court Justice Nripa Dhwaj Niraula ordered the immediate opening of the padlocks in Tribhuvan University offices, part-time professors have removed the locks from the offices of the Vice-Chancellor, the Dean, the Registrar, and TU Service Commission, the news published.

An editorial has been published in Kantipur calling for action against anyone who disrupts educational activities or vandalizes public property. The editorial states that TU can never improve if those in power play a role in protecting them.

TU is set to graduate 90,000 students this year. The news was made public by quoting university officials who said that the largest numbers of students are graduating even though they could not provide services to students as expected.

The University Co-Chancellor MoEST Mr. Raghuji Pant has said that the Prime Minister and Ministers should not be appointed as Chancellors and Co-Chancellors of any university, the news quoted.

Nhuchhe Narayan Shrestha wrote in Gorkhapatra that the Government of Nepal should allocate sufficient budget to provide the opportunity for all citizens to pursue higher education.

Govinda Bahadur Karki wrote that access to education has increased for marginalized communities and citizens in priority areas of the state who are deprived of their natural right to education due to the Community Campuses under Tribhuvan University, which are spread out to remote areas, which have community investment, participation, ownership, collaboration, and concern.
Prakash Kumar Poudel and Deepika Sharma in an article in Kantipur, wrote although the government's policies and programs have created an environment to transform technical education into mainstream education by encouraging the concept of 'learning while earning, earning while learning', there is a need for a clearer, more practical, and sustainable structure to implement it effectively.

The Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority has filed a corruption case against four people on charges of colluding and misappropriating funds for the construction of a non-existent school building in Dunai, the district headquarters of Dolpa. It was found that financial irregularities of Rs 760,000 were committed in collusion with the head of the District Technical Office, the news published.

Purpose of this news review is to classify and synthesize the educational content of the week and provide objective comments from the point of view of social justice and creative pedagogy including the environment. It is aimed to the policy makers and stakeholders to help make informed decisions. In this joint effort of the Center for Educational Policies and Practices (CEPP) and EduKhabar, material from daily newspapers - Kantipur, Gorkhapatra and The Himalayan Times, online news portals - Online Khabar, Setopati and Ratopati and the 8 o'clock news of Nepal Television and 7 o'clock news of Himalaya Television is summarized and presented with commentary on relevant issues. We have covered the contents from 28 June - July 4 2025 in this issue - The Editor.

Read this analysis in Nepali : गोलचक्करमा शिक्षा विधेयक !

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