Kathmandu - This week there were many newsthat reported about donation and support programs to government schools. The government was reported to work on a lunch menu for government school including for staffs of other governmental institution. An interview discussed about the need to promote better research base in higher education to make it more relevant to today’s changing needs. Supreme courts stay order against Institute of Medicine’s Entrance Exam was also reported this week.

 

Province 2 government has drafted a Dalit Empowerment Bill that ensures full scholarship to all Dalit students in higher education. Different repots and opinion was also dedicated to 40th National Education Day and International Literacy Day. Province 3 speaker was reported to have called for a more scientific and skill oriented approach to curriculum development for education that is more relevant to the need of the time.

 

Concerns about the quality of Higher Education and efforts to establish new Universities without sufficient research and data base were also raised in many articles. A unique innovative practice in a school in Dharma Rural Municipality, where students took lead to check on the punctuality and activities of teachers and parents engagement, improving learning outcome of the school was also covered this week. News reported that the parliamentary committee took side of the private medical institutions against students in the case of a complaint by students against institutions taking additional fees illegally from the students. 

 

- A news reports that all seven province have proposed concept of Provincial University. It states that though high number of universities are being proposed by different level of government, non are based on research and are unclear about their population domain, need and relevance. Most of the universities are being purposed without sufficient research in zoning of the service area. An opinion article stated that University will become a space for knowledge creation, discourse and development only when it can be established as a space for academic competence. The writer a professor of TU, suggest alike other government’ssecurity institutions, appointment of the VC based on the seniority method would be best for university as well.

 

- Picture of astudent’s science exhibition in the occasion of 40th National Education Day published in The Himalayan Times in Sept 6.

 

- The Education and health committee of House of Representatives have concluded on the side of the private medical institutions that have taken additional fees from the students illegally. The committee has blamed the ministry, university, parents and teachers for the situation, but is silent on behalf of the private institutions itself. The committee suggests legalizing the additional fee in next academic session. An advocate has openly expressed that the committee members have fallen under the influence of the lobbing by the private medical institutions. The committee recommends the government to take action against TU and KU.

 

- Janakalyan Primary School in Dharma Rural Municipality of Salyan, has taken a unique approach to improve education quality, as students have been taking attendance of teachers. These students also review the time table of teachers, and submit it to the principle regularly. Students also review the activities of the school management committee members, and parents in school. Teachers have become more punctual after students have become aware and actively review the time schedules of teachers’ activities. Based on the students records, engaged parents are awarded as well. After improvement in learning outcomes, students have also joined back from private schools in recent times.

 

- The Supreme Court stayed the Institute of Medicine’s MBBS entrance exam scheduled for tomorrow. The petitioners have named the Medical Education Commission, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, IoM, Tribhuvan University, Patan Health Sciences Academy, BPKIHS and Kathmandu School of Medical Sciences as defendants. The SC stated it was staying the IoM entrance exam planned for September 7 as issues raised by petitioners were related to provisions of the Medical Education Act and needed to be settled after hearing arguments from both the sides. In the writ petition filed on Wednesday, the petitioners argued that the said medical institutions had planned to conduct MBBS entrance exams without allocating 75 per cent scholarship seats — a mandatory provision of the newly passed Medical Education Act.

 

- Bhanu Municipality of Damauliwill take action against incapable teachers in community schools of the municipality from the next academic session. According to the municipality, community school teachers will face action if they do not meet the basic criteria. Mayor Udaya Raj Gauli of the municipality said action would be taken against teachers who did not fulfill the set goals. He stated hope that quality of education will improve if action is taken against irresponsible teachers and reward to well performing teachers.

 

It was also reported that Byas municipality, of Tanahun will be providing free lunch to kids from grade I to V at community schools with intention to prevent kids from leaving school in the middle of the day and increase attendance. The municipality is collecting data of the kids studying in those grades.

 

'Education this Week' is a joint effort put to analyze the press coverage of education in Nepal’s selected print media published in Kathmandu. The main aim of this effort is to identify and explain major education issues picked up by the media and give back and foreground of the news.This, we believe, will help policy makers and other responsible people to keep abreast with ongoing concerns and discussions on and around education. EduKhabar, in collaboration with the Center for Educational Policies and Practices (CEPP) , has produced this analysis based on the news printed in Kantipur (Nepali) and The Himalayan Times (English), Dailies andHimal Weekly(Nepali) betweenSept 4-10, 2019 (Bhadra 18-24, 2076)- Editor.

 

Read last week’s analysis : Education Camps and Transforming Student Politics

All analysis read by this link : Education This week