Danmark har støttet Nepals skolevæsen siden 1992 og undervisningssektoren betragtes som en model for mange andre u-lande. Men nu sætter borgerkrigen mellem Kongen og hans regering i Kathmandu og de maoistiske oprørere, der kontrollerere store dele af det 147.000 kvadratkm store land, sig dybe spor også i denne del af udviklingsindsatsen.
(Omtale af det danske program findes nedenfor efter denne artikel)
Many poor children in rural areas have a chance to get a quality education in community schools. Pressure from Maoists on these schools has been affecting the education of thousands of children in remote areas
KATHMANDU, 27 March (IRIN): Over 2.000 of Nepals community-managed schools, regarded by education experts as the best model for quality schooling in rural areas, are coming under immense political pressure both from the Maoists – who have been waging an armed rebellion against the state for the last 10 years – and the Nepal National Teachers Association (NNTA), a union of 80.000 government school teachers.
According to reports by local government education offices in rural areas, a large number of community-based schools are being routinely locked up or their classes disrupted.
Since 2003, with financial support from the World Bank, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has been transferring the management responsibilities of public schools to local communities, comprising of parents, community leaders and teachers. The government provides a grant of 1.500 US dollar to each community-managed school.
Under its Community School Support Programme (CSSP), the MoE, in a bid to make schools independent from government control while improving school efficiency, has handed over 2.292 schools to communities in 62 of the 75 districts in the Himalayan kingdom.
Additionally, they have been given the authority to supervise, as well as to hire and suspend, those teachers who neglect their duties or stay absent from class for long periods of time.
The UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) believes that effort has proved successful in enrolling and keeping more children in village schools, where according to the MoE, over 4 million of Nepals children under 15 years of age are still not going to school. So far only 6 million, or 82 percent, of children are currently enrolled at the primary school level.
But due to inefficient and poor quality public education, less than 67 percent of the children make it to grade five, while less than a third of primary school students manage to enter lower secondary schools.
Nepal has one of the highest school dropout rates in the world, with nearly 70 percent of Nepalese children between the ages of six and 10 years of age dropping out due to poverty, lack of teachers and poorly managed public schools.
With community schools, however, there is hope of a better public education system amongst poor families in Nepal, particularly in rural areas — where nearly 86 percent of the Himalayan countrys 27 million inhabitants live.
– Handing over the schools to communities is very good and an effective homegrown initiative as it had proved to be a successful education model. There is no credible alternative for the countrys education system, asserted Rajendra Joshi, a senior education specialist at the World Bank in Kathmandu.
Backing up the stance, the bank has also committed more financial support to this programme due to its many positive outcomes.
But recently the Maoists have demanded that the government take back the management responsibilities of the public schools given to the local communities, accusing the state of running away from its responsibilities.
In addition, the NNTA expressed concerns that the communities were not capable enough to run the schools without government supervision.
– Managing schools is a huge challenge, both academically and financially, and local communities are not prepared in both cases. The decision to hand over schools to communities can have negative consequences, maintained NNTAs General Secretary Baburam Adhikari.
Yet government authorities maintain this is nothing but a political motive, with many teachers merely concerned about their own job security. – We should look at the fact that today more poor children are staying longer in schools. This proves that communities are doing a very good job, Om Sharma, an official from the Department of Education, explained.
A recent 2006 World Bank survey of 10.000 households in 33 schools showed that the rate of school dropouts at primary school level had dropped from 13,7 percent to 9,5 percent.
– When the political crisis and the insurgency have made development work more challenging, there is increasing evidence and realisation that letting the communities lead the way is the smart approach to sustain development, World Bank chief in Nepal, Ken Ohasi, said Friday to the Nepali Times, a national weekly, while referring to the conflicts impact on the poor countrys education system.
Kilde: FN-bureauet IRINnews
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EDUCATION
Denmark has been involved in education in Nepal since 1992 and is currently supporting basic and primary education, including pre-school and non-formal education, “EFA 2004-09”, as well as secondary education, “SESP 2003-09”.
Investing in human resources – Education
Nepal has prioritised both basic and primary and secondary education, as education is seen as an important contribution to the national goal of poverty reduction. The Government has announced that it will raise the level of allocations to the education sector to 19 per cent of the national budget, of which 55-65 per cent goes to primary and 25 per cent to secondary education. For 2005-06 the share for education is 16,9 per cent.
Education Programme
Grant DKK 200 million (Education for All)
DKK 265 million (Secondary Education Support Programme)
Period 2003-2009
Main partners: The Nepalese Government, incl. Ministry of Education and Sports and other line agencies
Geographical focus: All of Nepal
The objective of the Danish assistance to the education sector is to assist the Nepalese Government in improving all childrens access to education, in enhancing the quality of public school education, and in developing institutional capacity.
80 per cent of the Danish assistance is channelled to the government through a joint donor financing arrangement. The remaining 20 per cent provide funding for capacity building, mainly in the form of institutional linkage arrangements, and for piloting new and innovative approaches.
EFA 2004-09, which is the Governments plan for basic and primary education, is widely regarded as a model of a nationally designed programme that was developed through a consultative process involving thousands of stakeholders at central, district and school levels.
Denmark, Finland, Norway, DFID (UK) and World Bank support the programme through a pool arrangement (sector budget support), while other partners as for example (Japanese) JICA, UNICEF and UNESCO support EFA through parallel, but coordinated interventions.
The expansion of primary education has increased demands for secondary education, which was one of the reasons for the Government, assisted by Denmark and Asian Development Bank, to develop the national reform programme for secondary education, SESP. Special activities are being implemented in 10 of the poorest districts, where many children do not go to school. SESP, like EFA, will promote girls and marginalized groups access to schools.
Inclusive education and decentralization is the key strategies to address the diversity among children in Nepal to meet the learning needs of all. The aspiration is to improve the equality of education to bring in the substantial portion of the 15-20 per cent of the primary school going age children, who are still outside the school system, such as many girls (25 per cent), dalits (low caste), indigenous, disabled and other marginalized groups.
Special scholarship programmes are targeting these groups. With a view to involve the private sector at all levels, the Government is intensifying its cooperation with civil society in various areas, such as social mobilization, technical support and monitoring.
Challenges (February 2006)
It is doubtful that Nepal will be able to reach the 2015 goals, but the Ministry of Education and Sports sees EFA 2004-09 as a serious effort to achieve at least some of the targets. The net enrolment figure for 2005 is 86. This figure is planned to rise to 96 in 2009, and to 100 in 2015.
A campaign to get more children to school that was carried out all over Nepal in spring 2005, proved a very successful step in this direction. Only 48 out of 100 adults can read and write. This figure is planned to rise to 66 in 2009, and to 75 in 2015. Compared to 100 men, who are literate, only 60 women can read. The relative figure of literate women to men is planned to reach 90 in 2009, and 100 in 2015.
The Ministry of Education and Sports has responded to the conflict by accelerating decentralization to speed up implementation, and to strengthen governance and accountability at local levels.
For example the conflict has caused delays in the general school building programme, which was planned to reconstruct and expand the schools to create room for greater enrolments. It is now realised that to meet the need for schools construction in remote and conflict affected areas, the building programme will have to be further decentralised.
In spite of efforts to keep the conflict out of schools by declaring them Zone of Peace, the sector is affected by the armed conflict:
From time to time schools are temporarily closed by Maoists, used by security forces, a few, mostly private schools, have been destroyed, and a number of children and teachers are abducted by Maoists for “re-education” and military training purposes etc.
Consequently many children leave their villages and move to district headquarters and Kathmandu, creating pressure on schools there. To remedy the problem of overcrowding, the authorities have started setting up a number of temporary schools in the worst affected areas.
Accumulated expenditure (February 2006)
Education for All
DKK 69,1 million
Secondary Education Support Programme
DKK 103,1 million
Education Sector Advisory Team
Both EFA and SESP is supported from the offices of the Education Sector Advisory Team, ESAT.
Responsible desk officer(s)
Else Møller Nielsen
Shiva Lal Bhusal
