| Biswo |
Posted
on 21-Nov-00 04:35 PM
>What's going on? Why is our public school
>system crumbling? What can be done? what are
>the possible alternatives?
>
>sparsha
The problem with our public schooling system is their being
underfunded.They so dearly need more funds to get teachers and
chalk/dusters in the classrooms.
The problem with hinterland schools are more acute.The teachers
brought from outside doesn't even attend the school,and take
the salary.
Now that government is so much forced(!) to delegate its significant
part of resources to combat the rebels, the problem of health and
education types of things are not going to be resolved until we
get one really determined finance minister who can raise more
tax from delinquent/elusive taxpayers.
Schools are traditionally being targetted by political parties.No
wonder rebels are following the same path that our ruling parties
once were following.As always, the demand of rebels is justifiable, it is only their way of doing thing that is not
tenable..
Finally, the education expenditure in Nepal is one of the highest
of its budget in the world: the education budget is about 14% of
the whole budget.I don't know how much further government should go, and
how much public should pay themselves.
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| sparsha |
Posted
on 22-Nov-00 09:11 AM
>
>The problem with our public schooling system
>is their being
>underfunded.They so dearly need more funds
>to get teachers and
>chalk/dusters in the classrooms.
Biswo, you mentioned here that 14% of total budget is allocated for education. And still, schools are underfunded? Are they really underfunded or some people are pocketing quite a bit (creating underfunded situation)?
>The problem with hinterland schools are more
>acute.The teachers
>brought from outside doesn't even attend the
>school,and take
>the salary.
And who is responsible to check such corrupted practice? students? (it will be "politics", if they try to do that), teachers? Administration? or together? (if they could come together, such practices wouldn't have taken place).
>Now that government is so much forced(!) to
>delegate its significant
>part of resources to combat the rebels, the
>problem of health and
>education types of things are not going to
>be resolved until we
>get one really determined finance minister
>who can raise more
>tax from delinquent/elusive taxpayers.
Do we need a good finance minister or the good and "real representatives of people in the parliament?, who can force (if the responsible party tries to deviate) for the betterment of the system forgetting party politics?
>Schools are traditionally being targetted by
>political parties.No
>wonder rebels are following the same path
>that our ruling parties
>once were following.As always, the demand of
>rebels is justifiable, it is only their way
>of doing thing that is not
>tenable..
Why can political parties through their sister units can use educational premises for planning their ideas and executing them but why law enforcement agencies can't come in into those premeises to check possible unlawful activities?
The teachers are not genuinely committed to teach in public schools, students body is comprised from poor class families who can't afford to send their kids anywhere else. So, the students may have other priorities than just attending schools. Lack of students motivation may be contributing to the already downed morale of the teachers. And the Government, well, just trying to beat the world to keep the record of the most corrupted govt.
Those private schools which are commercialized so much and are presenting themselves as the instituions of higher class people are also contributing a lot to shake the foundation of public schools.
sparsha
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 22-Nov-00 06:12 PM
Sparsha:
>you mentioned here that 14% of total
>budget is allocated for education. And still,
> schools are underfunded? Are they really
>underfunded or some people are pocketing
>quite a bit (creating underfunded situation)?
This is really a good hint.The cardinal reason for this is our
overall budget is not that much.But this is not significant reason
to justify the topsyturvy of overall educational state that we are
witnessing now.
It is not concidence that one of the most corrupt ministers of NC
,to name Mr Gobinda Joshi, was education minister for a long
period.In UML era,it was Mr Prashrit(his proleterian past has
problem reconciling with his newfound Mahal-wala life).
Here, I want to give you an example of one officer in Nepal's
ministry whose rise is often mentioned in Nepalese newspaper with
contempt.This guy was the director of primary education project,
his name Dr Tirtha Khaniya, and his rise has parallelled the rise
of minister Joshi,his good friend.(Both were decent teachers in
their good old days.)
Like a vice character of a novel,this officer has misused funds
of his project, provided jobs to all his relatives and cronies,
provided the project funded vehicles to his friends in the party,
porkbarrelled the funds unproportionally to his and his friends'
constituency and spends his current life too lavishly and globe
trotting all year.Those who know him in the plateau of his life
just wonder how he is living in his peak!!He is currntly
contemplating joining politics(it surely seems more lucrative
field to him) and cultivating local support in his constituency.(I
am sure you can assume this guy is beyond the reach
anti-corruption body of Nepal.)
Another quite an unintelligible condition is:we have so many private
education institutes, we are also allocating more funds for the
sacred purpose of education & further, our religious centers also
are offering education for underprivileged people throughout the
country,still our achievement is very inconsequential.Sparse
demographic distribution in remote hilly regions may be one cause
for not having more students attending one school,attributing to low
literacy rates to those areas and more expense in those places.But
the main reason is certainly the lack of readiness in officers in
Keshar Mahal and pervert lifestyles.
>And who is responsible to check such
>corrupted practice? students? (it will be "
>politics", if they try to do that), teachers?
> Administration? or together? (if they could
>come together, such practices wouldn't have
>taken place).
I am sure local administration is responsible for this.I have
heard of one village where local VDC chief was responsible for
having attendance log of local teachers.(Sorry, I can't remember
which was the village.)
>Do we need a good finance minister or the
>good and "real representatives of people in
>the parliament?
I am damn sure first we need good finance minister.We want a
strict finance minister who fulfills the target of tax raise.Man,
we need to give authority of appointing tax office head/bank head/
revenue head to finance minister.Once the payraise is not
realised, just shoot his head.(By the way, this is Chinese
practice,Zhu Rongji does this pretty much.When Y2K problem was
very much in talk, and Chinese were afraid hearing canards that their
airlines are not ready for that, the government ordered all the
chiefs of their airlines to fly in the first flight of the
airline in the 1st January of 2000.)
Surely,my point is we can't dictate who will be representative of
people,that is pretty much dependent on the hoi polloi,but the
finance minister is something the prime minister and his party
can decide.
>Why can political parties through their
>sister units can use educational premises
>for planning their ideas and executing them
>but why law enforcement agencies can't come
>in into those premeises to check possible
>unlawful activities?
Political parties shouldn't aggresively recruit their members in
schools ,this is my belief. However, I have one very good reason
why law enforcement agencies can't enter the educational premises
for 'possible' unlawful activities.
First,the definition of 'possible' can be very vague.Second, the
schools are supposed to be out of the shadow of terror, because
the intelligence acquisition process can be intensely slow in the
silhoutte of duress.Third,schools are traditionally given the freedom to
cultivate thoughts.Remember, rebellion is a very thought schools
are supposed to encourage.We are not only supposed to produce
obsequious privates for the government in schools.The significance
of schools are characterized by their ability to produce the new
trend/direction for society.Political rebellion should be consider
a discipline in schools.That is not an unlawful activity. Human
civilization development is a long process, which is in constant
need of new practices/new ideas and schools have long offered the
raw materials for this sacred purpose.
Sparsha, we are in the process of testing the existing system in
our society.We don't for sure know which rubric to establish for
steering the country forward.We tend to oppose and support some schools of
thoughts.But we still don't insist that they are absolute solution, no
body can.So,it is too insular/nondemocratic thought to try to
define an alternative solution as absurd or unlawful.
Finally, happy thanksgiving to you and all of our readers.
Biswo N Poudel.
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