exploring partnerships for education for all: (swap) in nepalaspbae.org/sites/default/files/pdf/swap...

Exploring partnErships for Education for all:A Study on the Sector-Wide ApproAch (sWap)in

nEpal

about aspbaE

The Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE) is a regional association of more than 200 organizations and individuals working towards promoting quality education for all and transformative, liberating and life-long adult education and learning. It strives to forge and sustain an Asia-Pacific movement dedicated to mobilizing and supporting community and people’s organizations, national education coalitions, teachers’ unions, campaign networks and other civil society groups and institutions in holding governments and the international donor community accountable in meeting education targets and commitments, ensuring the right of all to education, and upholding education as an empowering tool for combating poverty and all forms of exclusion and discrimination, pursuing sustainable development, enabling active and meaningful participation in governance, and building a culture of peace and international understanding.

This publication is produced by ASPBAE with support from the Open Society Institute (OSI) Budapest. ASPBAE’s publications form an integral part of ASPBAE’s information, education and advocacy activities and efforts, and seek to support sharing and learning among education stakeholders, advocates, practitioners, analysts and policy-makers. The reader is therefore encouraged to use the material contained herein for reproduction, adaptation and translation worldwide for use in nonprofit education and information activities and publications, with due acknowledgment to ASPBAE, and to provide feedback that could help in further improving these publications.

For more information, contact the ASPBAE Secretariat at the following email address:

[email protected]

Exploring partnErships for Education for all:A Study on the Sector-Wide ApproAch (sWap) in nepAL

ISBN 81-278-0043-0ExPlOrINg PArtNErShIPS FOr EducAtION FOr All: A Study on the Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) in Nepal

© 2010, Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE)

Editorial board:MArIA lOurdES AlMAzAN KhANSecretary general, ASPBAE

rAquEl dE guzMAN cAStIllOAsia Policy Advocacy and campaigns coordinator, ASPBAE

MOhAMMAd MuNtASIM tANvIrSouth Asia Policy Advocacy and campaigns coordinator, ASPBAE

clAudINE d. clArIdAdAsia Policy Advocacy and campaigns Support Officer, ASPBAE

country rEsEarch tEam:BABurAM AdhIKArIdr. c P rIjAlKEShAB lOchAN ShArMA National campaign for Education Nepal

publication tEam: ANNA KAtArINA B. rOdrIguEz, Editor

r. jOrdAN P. SANtOS, layout Artist

photos contributEd by: Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education, National campaign for Education Nepal, Michael Mendoza, claudine claridad

This study is published with support from the Education Support Program of the Open Society Institute (OSI) Budapest.

The views expressed in this study do not necessarily reflect those of all ASPBAE members and of OSI.

tablE of contEnts

AcronymS....................................................................................4

prefAce..................................................................................................6 meSSAGe................................................................................................9

executive SummAry...........................................................................11

Section i: preAmbLe.............................................................................141.1 General background.........................................................................141.2 birth of SWAp as an integrated Approach to educational reform..............151.3 nepalese Scenario and interests...........................................................161.4 focus of the Study............................................................................161.5 objectives of the Study......................................................................171.6 research Questions............................................................................171.7 methodology of the Study.................................................................17

Section ii: Sector-Wide ApproAcheS in educAtion in nepAL........172.1 introduction.....................................................................................172.2 education for All...............................................................................172.3 the School Sector reform.....................................................................182.4 Quality education in the times of conflict.............................................182.5 identification of Key Sectoral Approaches in nepal.................................19

2.5.1 efA for Global perspectives.........................................................192.5.2 Secondary education Support program (SeSp)...................................262.5.3 School Sector reform program (SSrp)...............................................31

Section iii: LeSSonS LeArnt, chALLenGeS, concLuSionS And recommendAtionS............................................443.1 introduction.....................................................................................443.2 Lessons Learnt..................................................................................443.3 challenges.......................................................................................453.4 conclusions.....................................................................................463.5 recommendations............................................................................47

referenceS..........................................................................................50

4

expLorinG pArtnerShipS for educAtion for ALL:A Study on the Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) in nepAL

acronyms

AdB Asian development BankASIP Annual Strategic Implementation Plan ASPBAE Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult EducationAuSAId Australian Agency for International developmentAWPB Annual Work Plan and BudgetBPEP Basic and Primary Education ProjectcAS continuous Assessment Systemcdc curriculum development centerclc community learning centercOc code of conductcrc cluster resource centercSSP community School Support ProgramctEvt center for technical Education and vocational trainingdEO district Education OfficedFId department for International developmentdOE department of EducationdPOs development Partner OrganizationsdPs development PartnersEc European commissionEcdE Early childhood development and EducationEFA Education for AllEMIS Education Management Information SystemErO Education review OfficegAAP governance and Accountability Action PlangcE global campaign for EducationgdP gross domestic ProductgEr gross Enrollment rategoN government of NepalgOs government OrganizationsgPI gender Parity IndexhSEB higher Secondary Education BoardhSEP higher Secondary Education ProgramIdA International development Associationlrc local resource centerMdgs Millennium development goals MEcs Minimum Enabling conditionsMgt Multi-grade teachingMOE Ministry of EducationMOES Ministry of Education and SportsMOF Ministry of FinanceMOld Ministry of local developmentNcF National curriculum FrameworkNEr Net Enrollment rateNFE Non-Formal Education

5

NFEc Non-Formal Education centerNFEP Non-Formal Education ProgramNgOs Non-government OrganizationsNOrAd Norwegian Agency for development and cooperation NPA National Plan of ActionNPc National Planning commissionOcE Office of controller of Examinations OSI Open Society InstitutePAF Poverty Alleviation FundPcF Per capita FinancingPEP Primary Education ProjectPId Project Information documentPtAs Parent-teacher Associationsrc resource centerrqs research questionsSEdP Secondary Education development Project SESP Secondary Education Support ProgramSIP School Improvement PlanSlc School leaving certificateSMc School Management committeeSSr School Sector reformSSrP School Sector reform ProgramSWAp Sector-Wide ApproachtEP teacher Education ProjectuNEScO united Nations Educational, Scientific and cultural OrganizationuPE universal Primary EducationuSAId united States Agency for International developmentvdc village development committeeWB World Bank

6


prEfacE

There is need for greater

exploration on the interface

between resources and

programming, aid

harmonisation and the power

relations among the

different players especially within

the context of SWAps

the issue of education aid cuts across the whole Asia region and is not limited to South Asia. The scale of overall poverty and depri-vation, however, as linked to huge education deficit and severe

governance problems (due to prolonged conflict, instability), exerts tre-mendous pressure on the ability of national governments to mobilise and effectively deploy adequate resources to ensure the right of all its citizens to education. Thus, meeting the financing gap through increased qual-ity aid is a big concern in the subregion. While much work in this area has been developed and pursued by the global campaign for Education (gcE) globally, the capacities to take this forward at the national level are very thin. Earlier work of the Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE), supported by the Open Society Insti-tute (OSI) had begun to deepen understanding and analysis by the na-tional education coalitions of this area of policy, especially in aid sources, flow, composition, priorities and conditionalities. however, these need broader understanding nationally and within the key constituencies of the coalitions. Furthermore, there is a need to deepen analysis on a range of governance issues within education aid: sector-wide approaches (SWAps), lack of civil society participation and transparency, external funding that exacerbate inequalities for neglecting some goals of the Education For All (EFA) initiative at the expense of other goals and for promoting rampant privatisation of education. There is need for greater exploration on the interface between resources and programming, aid harmonisation and the power relations among the different players, especially within the context of SWAps. And overall, there is need to examine how all these link up to poor quality education and very low retention of children, youth and adults in poor learning environments.

7

SWAps have gained much currency especially as a means to move away from the traditional project approach, enabling greater possibility for generating support for recurrent costs e.g. teachers’ salaries, facilitate greater donor coordination and harmonisation and lower transaction costs. The understanding on how these processes really play out at the country level—and the analysis on whether they promote or actually retard progress in EFA—has been rather thin. The fact that, in most cases, these processes have excluded civil society organisations (cSOs) already indicate gaps in transparency—and also point to the challenge cSOs and coalitions will face in engaging in this process as the lack of access to even basic information of SWAp processes is rampant. So analysing the design and impact of SWAps is envisaged to equip the coalitions with enhanced knowledge on crucial issues like aid harmonisation, the extent to which donor priorities influence and at times dictate the sector-wide plans (Why is it that despite the scale of adult literacy gaps in South Asia, this remains a neglected, poorly resourced area?) issues of transparency in optimum level of utilisation, and coordination, participation issues among the government, donors and civil society, including teachers’ organisations.

With an objective to explore the aforementioned areas, three case studies on SWAps, in Sri lanka, Nepal and Pakistan, have been completed, this being one of them. These are timely initiatives: in Sri lanka, the ongoing Education Programme has been hailed as the one that most closely adheres to the key attributes of a SWAp. Nepal has a core document which outlines aspirations, funded by a pool of seven donors giving sector budget support according to an annual plan, with many large and small projects operating in parallel, outside the framework. In Pakistan (Sindh province) the Asian development Bank is making headway to support SWAps in national education planning. It is therefore hoped that, through this scoping initiative, education campaign coalitions can build competencies to enable them to start engaging with the SWAp processes and contribute to the broader EFA goals.

The studies were not envisaged to be academic researches into SWAp

Analysing the design and impact of SWAps isenvisaged to equip the coalitions with enhanced knowledge on crucial issues

8


technicalities, but rather organised as endeavours to review the SWAp design and identify policy entry points for the coalitions to engage with the governments and donors in meaningful dialogues, reflecting on a vital role in design, implementation and monitoring of the SWAps.

Interesting findings have emerged from the scoping studies. It appears that all the countries are on the way to adopting SWAps as the dominant approach in their plans to reach EFA goals. While all the studies affirm that the basic principles of SWAps are sound, there are concerns about the capacity of existing players (state, municipal and district level systems and functionaries, teachers and school management committees, as examples) to implement them. There are also concerns about sustainability, as these processes are significantly donor driven. disproportionate power relationships are also being called into question, as donors seem to have the upper hand in SWAp processes. There is also very limited participation of civil society bodies in the process.

While preliminary, these studies and the discussions of the coalitions concerning their outcomes have deep significance for advocacy engagements: Nepal, in its School Sector reform programme beginning this year, is moving closer to a more comprehensive education sector plan. In Pakistan the federal, provincial and district structures do not allow for one sectoral plan or accompanying budget. In this context, the SWAps are an important policy instrument since they can allow federal, provincial and district-based planning, with complementary budgeting. In Sri lanka, the ongoing Education Programme has an impressive record of bottom-up planning (which started at school level and consolidated as the process moved upwards) and a comprehensive framework moving away from a narrow project approach. But regrettably, the government seems to have incorporated a low level of cSO participation in the design phase.

This joint initiative of ASPBAE and the coalitions that explore the SWAp modalities is expected to position the coalitions to participate in the developing SWAp processes, which are vital for ensuring one of the key attributes of SWAp—full country ownership. It is also expected that the education advocates and practitioners will gain useful insights into the dominant model of education programming and will be able to find advocacy entry points. This will also hopefully open up pathways to engage a tripartite dialogue among donors, government and civil society to ensure mutual cooperation and accountability in pursing the goals of Education For All.

MArIA lOurdES AlMAzAN KhAN Secretary general, ASPBAE

MOhAMMAd MuNtASIM tANvIrSouth Asia Policy Advocacy and campaigns coordinator, ASPBAE

The education advocates and

practitioners will gain useful

insights into the dominant

model of education

programming and will be able to find

advocacy entry points

9

mEssagE

Within the national context of centralisation during the royal regime, Nepal could not move ahead with education re-form despite numerous policy-level works. The advent of

democracy in the country in the 1990s opened up many prospects for the education sector and propelled people to realise the need to claim their right to education. As the nation opened up with more liberal policies, the demands for education exceeded many times the national capacity to supply the minimum requirements.

To address all these issues, the nation commenced a number of distributive projects, namely, Primary Education Project (PEP), Secondary Education Development Project (SEDP) and other programs on basic and adult literacy. The early results of these interventions were appreciable but these were not properly integrated within and sustained in the national education system .

Meanwhile, the global campaign of ‘Education for All (EFA)’ emerged as an important platform to effect significant reforms in the education sector. Nepal, being one of the education-deprived countries, could not be isolated from this mission. By this time, the country has already implemented EFA (2004-2009), Secondary Education Support Program (SESP), having launched them successfully between 2003 and 2008. Similarly, other programs included

10


Teacher Education Project (TEP), Community School Support Program (CSSP), and Higher Secondary Education Project (HSEP) and Non-formal Education Program (NFEP).

Despite their highly effective outcomes, the implementation of these projects using different names and natures posed another challenge for the nation. This resulted in the conceptualisation of major interventions and initiatives to come up with an integrated approach for the holistic development of education sector. The World Bank was requested to extend financial and technical support in this mission.

The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) wing and other international agencies advocating in the development of the education sector collaborated on the development and implementation of School Sector Reform Program (SSRP, 2010-2015). This program has been promoted as a means to execute Nepal’s goals on EFA and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Despite its deeply-rooted purpose to develop the entire education sector, the program has faced numerous challenges since the beginning of its implementation. Concerns on the rationality of the program were raised, highlighting its failure to involve the local level agencies. While crafting the program, there were ongoing political and legal uncertainties doubting the capacity of the national and federal mechanism to carry out reforms on education. Ever-continued donor-driven approach of program design, development and implementation was still prevalent. These are some of the formidable challenges to SSRP’s success.

Community level partnership, involvement of concerned local institutions, national commitment for each and every aspect of equity, access, equality, inclusion, cost and benefits must be addressed through public-initiated policy undertaking before crafting programs aimed at the development of general public.

Centralised planning under a decentralised regime may not be effective. Similarly, there must be national policy interventions with regard to donor involvement in the design and implementation of any project or program initiated for public welfare.

The strengthening of governance system and policies, the integration of international support and program design, and the development and implementation by the local agencies for the general public through their active involvement will ensure the successful implementation of such programs.

Even amidst all the challenges, it is a journey that we are all keen to embark on.

MR. BABuRAM ADHIkARIDR. C P RIjAl

MR. kESHAB loCHAN SHARMA National Campaign for Education Nepal

11

Within the national context of centralization during the royal regime, the nation could not move ahead with education reform despite numerous policy level works. The advent of

democracy in the country in the 1990s opened up many prospects in education. People realized the need for raising their voices for their educational rights.

ExEcutivE summary

12


to address these all issues, the nation commenced a number of distributive projects: Primary Education Project (PEP), Secondary Education development Project (SEdP) and a number of programs on basic and adult literacy. The early results of these interventions were appreciable but these concepts lacked proper integration for the sustainable development of the national education system.

At the same time, the global campaign of “Education for All (EFA)” emerged as an important international thrust on education. Nepal, being one of the educationally-deprived countries, could not be isolated from this mission. The country has already implemented EFA (2004-2009) and Secondary Education Support Program (SESP) was launched successfully between 2003-2008. Other programs included teacher Education Project (tEP), community School Support Program (cSSP), higher Secondary Education Project (hSEP) and Non-Formal Education Program (NFEP).

despite their highly-effective outcomes, the implementation of so many projects through different names and natures became another challenge for the nation. It resulted in the conceptualization of major interventions and the initiation of an integrated approach for the development of whole school sector education. The World Bank was requested to share hand-in-hand financial and technical support in this mission.

Through the World Bank, International development Association (IdA) and many other international agencies advocating in the development of education sector, School Sector reform Program (SSrP-2010–2015) was developed and the program is now being implemented. This program has been promoted as a means to execute Nepal’s goals of EFA 2015 as well as the Millennium development goals (Mdgs) in the context of Nepalese school sector education.

despite its deeply-rooted purpose for the development of entire education sector, the program faces numerous challenges right from its implementation. There are also concerns raised on its rationality. The mission hardly involved the local level agencies. While crafting the program, ongoing political legal uncertainty, uncertainty of national and federal mechanism for governance and education, ever-continued donor-driven approach of program design, development and implementation are some of the deeply-rooted concerns against the SSrP’s success.

community-level partnership, involvement of concerned local institutions, national commitment for each and every aspect of equity, access, equality, inclusions, cost and benefits need to be addressed through public-initiated policy undertaking before opting with such programs aimed at the development of general public.

centralized planning under a decentralized regime may not be effective like other past ventures. Similarly, there must be national policy interventions with regard to donor involvement in the design and implementation of any project or program initiated for public welfare.

rationalization of governance system and policies, integration of international support and program design, development and implementation by the local agencies for the general public through their active involvement will ensure the successful implementation of such programs.

Centralizedplanningunder a

decentralizedregime

may not beeffective like

other pastexperiences

ventures

Exploring partnErships for Education for all:A Study on the Sector-Wide ApproAch (sWap) in nepAL

14


sEction i: prEamblE

1.1 gEnEral backgroundNepal is a landlocked country, bordered by china to the north and by India to

the rest of the directions. The country consists of three distinct ecological zones—(i) the himalayas, the high mountain range with snow-covered peaks; (ii) lush, forest-covered high hills and valleys; and (iii) the terai, a strip of fertile plains, mostly used for cropping the dense forests.

As of 2007, Nepal has a population of 27.03 million, of which approximately 40% being under the age of 15. Socially, Nepal is inhabited by the people of diverse social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The national census in 2001 noted 103 socio-ethnic groups and recorded 92 languages, out of which more than a dozen are in active use by the people numbering more than one hundred thousand for each language.

recently, education has been considered an important tool for poverty reduction by empowering people with knowledge, skills and competencies. Equally, the voices on rights-based education, inclusive education and technical education have become stronger. The demand for accessible and quality education has become a national agenda.

to address these issues, in the 1990s, the nation commenced a number of distributive projects, namely: Primary Education Project (PEP), Secondary Education development Project (SEdP) and a number of programs on basic literacy and adult education. The early results of these interventions were appreciable but the programs largely lacked proper integration for the sustainable development of the national education system, especially at school level.

Amid these developments, the global campaign of “Education for All (EFA)” emerged as an important international thrust on education. Nepal, being one of the educationally-deprived countries, achieved more attention of this mission. The country has already implemented EFA (2004-2009), Secondary Education Support Program (SESP) has been already completed between 2003-2008. Other programs include teacher Education Project (tEP), community School Support Program (cSSP), higher Secondary Education Project (hSEP) and Non-Formal Education Program (NFEP).

despite highly significant and relevant outcomes of distributive programs and projects, the implementation of so many projects through different names and natures became more challenging globally. to address this, a new concept came in existence—consolidating major interventions and developing an integrated approach for the development of whole school sector education.

The World Bank was requested to join hand-in-hand as the financial and technical support in this mission. Through the active involvement of the World Bank, International development Association (IdA) and many other international agencies advocating the development of education sector, the School Sector reform Program (SSrP, 2010-2015) was developed. This program is now being implemented and promoted as a means to execute Nepal’s goals of EFA 2015 as well as Millennium development goals (Mdgs) in the context of Nepalese school sector education.

Education has been considered

an important tool for poverty

reduction by empowering people with knowledge,

skills and competencies.

15

1.2 birth of sWap as an intEgratEd approach to Educational rEform

It was right from the mid-1950s when education reform movements started in the united States of America (uSA), Nepal started its systematic approach to the institutionalization and reform of education. Since then, almost in every decade, Nepali education system has been revisited through at least one national high level education commission-initiated study and several hundreds of other targeted studies suggesting numerous policy- and program-level corrective measures. But the condition is almost the same as when the nation began its mission.

On the other hand, uSA moved far ahead with the multi-sectoral development of education, leading powerful advocacies in world education. The question arises—what makes this difference?

According to rijal (2004) and Koirala (1996), it may be partly due to the lack of consistency of purpose. These scholars have identified that the national education reform missions and responsible institutions neglected to provide a consistent vision for quality and accessible education.

rijal (2004), by means of a review of a series of research and development reports in education in the last 50 years in the country, diagnosed and identified that such research studies severely lacked an intergenerational, holistic framework of education. research studies saw factors in an isolated manner. For certain periods, the total budget poured into the development of school infrastructure; followed by a shift in focus on teacher development in another decade; and another shift towards curricular development the next decade. The attention given to different aspects were never integrated. As a result, the nation could not move forward with a holistic approach of development of education, especially in school education. It is surmised that this lack of integration led to the gap between world education and Nepalese education.

Another factor considered as equally responsible for the status of the educational development in Nepal is the biased approach of international agencies advocating reforms and development. These institutions attempted to do it their way, simply ignoring the ground reality. As such, in spite of the amount of money and efforts invested, the results came below expectations.

In early days of their inception, the Primary Education Program (PEP) and the Secondary Education Program both proved to be highly relevant for the overall development of school education. They, too, remained less supportive in the long-run for achieving the expected rate of attainment since these programs also lacked more innovative and creative approaches.

This situation enlightened all the policy makers, donors and implementing agencies. A more holistic approach of reform was essential for the proper and timely needed identification, problem recognition, development of reform programs and their implementation. This concept was further concretized in the first decade of 2000. Following the international development in education in the less developed countries, such approach has achieved the shape of sector-wide approach (SWAp) to education reform. It is defined by its vision for access and equity, quality, improving efficiency and capabilities through massive policy reforms, community participation and awareness-generation programs.

Section i: preAmbLe

A review of a series of research and development reports in education in the last 50 years in the country, diagnosed and identified that such research studies severely lacked an intergenerational, holistic framework of education

16


1.3 nEpalEsE scEnario and intErEstsThe studies have confirmed that the scale of overall poverty and deprivation has

been linked to huge education deficit and severe governance problems resulting from prolonged national and regional conflict and instability. These problems have tremendously weakened the ability of national governments to mobilize and effectively deploy adequate resources to ensure the right of all its citizens to education.

generally, meeting the financing gap would be possible through increased quality aids. like other sectors, maintaining the quality of the delivery of aids has been considered as a very important concern in education.

While much work in this area has been developed and pursued by the global campaign for Education (gcE), the capacities to further this at the national level are very thin. Earlier work supported by Open Society Institute (OSI) had begun to deepen understanding and analysis by the national education coalitions of this area of policy, especially in aid sources, flow, composition, priorities and conditionality.

various steps need to be taken. The analysis on a range of governance issues must be deepened. The magnitude of the interface between resources and programming, aid harmonization and the power relations among the different agencies, especially within the context of sector-wide approach (SWAps) are to be explored. The reasons behind the neglect of education, despite it showing that the scale of adult literacy gap in South Asia is very high, have to be studied. Moreover, the issues of transparency in utilization, coordination and participation among the government, donors and civil societies including teachers’ associations/unions have to be tackled.

The situation extremely demands examining how all these link up to poor quality education and very low retention of children, youth and adults in the differing learning environments.

1.4 focus of thE studyKeeping in view the above situation, a scrutiny of SWAp was expected to

provide deeper insights on direction and magnitude of policy, strategy and program coherence within education in Nepal as a constituent part of ongoing international assessment in the region.

Since SWAp is essentially a political agreement between the major donors and the government along the lines of EFA commitments, poverty reduction framework and Mdgs, auditing of policy intentions of donor community and political commitments of the government was important in order to closely assess the effectiveness of goals, objectives and strategies of the SWAp.

different aspects need to be examined to assess if the aim of national education—whereby all the children will be in position to receive high-quality, lifelong and relevant basic education—is heading in the right direction. The aim of ‘equality of opportunity’ can be accomplished by broadening the public opportunities and by encouraging civil society to support the government.

Studies have confirmed that

the scale of overall poverty

and deprivation has been

linked to huge education deficit

and severe governance

problems resulting from

prolonged national and

regional conflict and instability

17

1.5 objEctivEs of thE studyBased on the situation analysis and focus of the study, the present work aims:– to review the various documents advocating different sector-wide policies,

strategies and action programs initiated to promote the mission EFA in Nepal,– to establish necessary differences in such policies, programs, and strategies

with respect to their implementation and to analyze the impeding challenges thereof, and

– to provide advocacy inputs to revisit such policies, programs, and strategies to make sure that the nation is supported to achieve its committed national and global goals for education from EFA perspectives.

1.6 rEsEarch QuEstionsrq1: What are the differences between the education-related policies, strategies

and programs and their implementation status in the context of Nepal?rq2: What corrective measures should be initiated to make sure that such

differences can be transformed into a more positive direction to support the nation in achieving its specified goals and commitment in the mission of EFA?

1.7 mEthodology of thE studyThe entire work was done through the desk review of documents related to SWAps

and other documents of different programs contributing to the mission of sector-wide development of education in the context of the present situation in Nepal.

For this, the reviewing task was further narrowed down to the critical appreciation of policies, programs and implementation strategies to come up with relevant suggestions aimed at reducing the gap between the policies and program implementation.

Key personalities responsible for educational policy development, planning and implementation were also consulted.

sEction ii: sEctor-WidE approachEs in Education in nEpal

2.1 introductionThis section presents select reviews and views regarding various policies, programs

and implementation strategies related to sector-wide approach to education reform of Nepal. Adequate attempt has been made to explore the policy level differences, impeding problems and potential for future prospects.

2.2 Education for allNorway has supported the government of Nepal for its Education for

All (EFA) 2004-2009 sector program, a comprehensive primary education intervention as part of Nepal’s EFA National Plan of Action (NPA) (2001-2015). The Ministry of Education aims to achieve the 2015 Millennium development goals (Mdgs) and the EFA goals by introducing systemic

Section ii: Sector-Wide ApproAcheS in educAtion in nepAL

18


improvements in service delivery and planning mechanisms. EFA builds on the previous education intervention Basic and Primary Education Program (BPEP II) also funded by Norway.

Nepal’s EFA program is drawing upon support from pooling partners, non-pooling partners and national and international NgOs and local communities. Norway together with denmark, department for International development (dFId), Finland, the World Bank, AusAId, European commission (Ec), uNIcEF and the Asian development Bank (AdB) are coordinating their support for the program through a joint financing arrangement (jFA) for sector budget support. The EFA program ended in july 2009. This is followed by the implementation of the School Sector reform Program.

2.3 thE school sEctor rEformThe School Sector reform core document (2008) is a result of a national

initiative and a product of local efforts. The reform program aims to consolidate the gains made under EFA to meet access, equity and quality goals for primary schooling while simultaneously focusing on expanding the coverage of the school sector reform program. The program has a sector-wide approach that includes early childhood development and education (EcdE). The program also intends to make schooling more relevant to the needs of early-school-leavers by piloting vocational streams at the post-basic level. A key aspect of the program is its focus on developing quality assurance mechanism and improving the accountability framework for the delivery of key services. The overarching goal is to ensure learners’ equitable access to quality education; to change the school structure, moving from a grade 1-5 to a grade 1-8 system; and to enhance institutional-, organizational- and human capacity.

The School Sector reform Plan 2009-2015 (February, 2009) presents policies, strategic options and implementation strategies to meet issues and challenges identified, such as rising expectations, integrating basic and secondary levels, improving quality and relevance, ensuring inclusive participation and decentralizing education management and financing.

2.4 Quality Education in thE timEs of conflict

The development of “New Nepal” in the fragile political situation is still a challenge for the education sector. however, during the years of conflict, the education sector was able to make considerable progress and maintained delivery of services in most parts of the country. In addition to the national education program, Norway also supported Save the children and uNIcEF’s programs to strengthen the governance aspects of service delivery and to improve quality in education by promoting protective school environment and inducing child-friendly teaching-learning methods.

The interventions also include the mitigation of the impact of disaster and conflict as well as the assessment of the opportunities for obtaining basic education and skills for out-of-school children. Both agencies have a strong focus on social inclusion and reaching vulnerable groups.

Nepal’s EFA program

is drawing upon support from pooling

partners, non-pooling partners and national and international

NGOs and local communities

19


2.5 idEntification of kEy sEctoral approachEs in nEpalBasically, sector-wide approaches in education reforms are envisioned keeping

in view the improvement of access and equity, quality, efficiency and institutional capacity and policy reforms. For this, a number of programs have been brought in place with the help of a number of international institutions under the leadership of department of Education (dOE).

For the purpose of making the present work more specific and manageable with inclusion of major sectoral program component, the following programs were selected for their inclusion in this work:

a. Education for All (EFA)b. Secondary Education Support Program (SESP)c. School Sector reform Program (SSrP)

2.5.1 Efa for global perspectivesdespite rigorous efforts, EFA campaign seems a big target in achieving the basic

education of all citizens. By the late 1990s, it was found that almost 113 million children, of which 60% of them were girls, had no access to primary education. Out of more than 800 million children below 6 years of age, only one third of them benefited from early childhood education. In a similar manner, of the 880 million adults that were illiterate, majority were women (uNEScO, 2008).

In April 2000, the World Education Forum on EFA (dakar conference) represented by 164 countries, international organizations, donor agencies, non-government organizations and civil society adopted the dakar Framework for Action, Education for All: Meeting Our Collective Commitments. The dakar Framework for Action was designed to deliver on the commitments made since 1990.

The framework lists strategies for achieving goals. The focus of the framework is on collective commitment to globally ensure that no country is left behind to meet EFA goals.

table 1: Efa goal summary

Goals Goal descriptions

Goal 1 expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education (ecce)

Goal 2 ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances

and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete, free and

compulsory primary education of good quality

Goal 3 ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through

equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skill programs

Goal 4 achieving a 50% improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women,

and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults

Goal 5 eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005,

and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with focus on girls’ full and equal

access to and achievement in basic education of good quality

Goal 6 improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so

that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in

literacy, numeracy and essential life skills

20


In addition to these goals, Nepal has further emphasized social inclusion to promote education for all communities and social clusters by means of a number of special interventions to make sure that each social cluster benefits from, at the very least, basic education.

The recent developments in Nepal, for example, School Sector reform Program (SSrP) has been initiated as a comprehensive program component to make sure the EFA goals are attained by means of sector-wide improvement in education. Increased school enrollment, retention and promotion rates, improvement of school infrastructure, improved school health and sanitation and development of teacher and curriculum have been identified as some of the early outcomes of the EFA mission in Nepal. however, the rate of school drop out is still a critical problem in the country.

Nepal has already passed a policy called ‘liberal promotion’ for up to grade 5, which attempts to explore effective room for implementation of continuous Assessment System (cAS) in schools.

According to uNEScO (2008), the EFA goal 5 states—eliminating disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality. Though Nepal has been working seriously in this line, the task is not easy due to deeply-rooted traditional customs, values and practices that are unfavorable to girls. For example, studies have found that the girls get less attention of the teachers in class than that of boys, who happen to dominate not only classroom activities but also lead most of the student-initiated violence. The teachers are also described as biased towards boys compared to girls while grading the students’ performance.

In the recent years, Nepal has enacted its response by bringing about a number of newer policies, strategies and programs. The more sectoral development-intensive programs are SESP and SSrP. Similarly, other key programs include non-formal education programs for adult and child literacy promotion and technical and vocational skill development programs.

cumming et al. (2009), in a more recent study initiated by Norwegian Agency for development cooperation (NOrAd), have conducted a joint evaluation of Nepal’s EFA 2004-2009 sector program. After evaluating each component of the EFA policy, program, components and strategies as well as performance results achieved through implementation, the study team has made at least 31 distinctive recommendations in line with 16 explicit areas of evaluation of EFA in general.

Policy: Although the entire EFA mission has clear policies on decentralization, community participation and focus on cultural and linguistic diversity, detailed planning to help implementation was still lacking. This resulted in a number of inconsistencies in policy execution. closer revisits and concrete policy interventions for effective execution are needed for policies on free education and cost-sharing modalities; practicality of implementing multi-lingual curricular interventions; and lack of clarity of the recognition of roles of fringe education programs, including special, non-formal and inclusive education.

Nepal has been working

seriously in this line, the task is

not easy due to deeply-rooted

traditional customs, values

and practices that are

unfavorable to girls

21

Access, Equity and Quality: Improving access, equity and quality of education is the foremost objective of EFA. The study has identified that the incentive payments in addition to free primary education has been perceived as one of the key motivators for the access of girls, dalits, janajatis and children from other disadvantaged communities. As a result, the local stakeholders have started with their proactive moves for developing additional infrastructure to create enough space to be able to house the additional number of children joining the schools.

however, the study team has identified some lapses on the clarity of scholarship criteria, effective implementation of the concept of ‘completely free primary education,’ and inadequacies of funds to target additional number students from disadvantaged groups, since many of them are still out of school.

Teaching-Learning Process and Environment: The sectoral evaluation report has identified that the increase in the number of teachers and trained teachers was a positive sign of EFA outcomes. however, classroom proceedings were still observed to be less satisfactory in many schools. lack of ‘in-house’ and ‘whole-school’ training was another observation of the evaluation team. Similarly, child friendliness and gender sensitivity were less effectively addressed in schools. Schools also lacked steps to address diversity issues.

Quality Standards and Monitoring: The study has revealed that key input standards are lacking. There is also no means of monitoring important changes—how students are learning and their level of learning achievement. Further, it has been identified that the implementation also lacks identifying the variables that influence learning achievement.

ECD, NFE and Adult Literacy: The study has shown, though early progress of the Ecd interventions was appreciable, that overall targeting was inadequate. NFE and adult literacy had the least level of attention and performance efficiency.

Capacity and Institutional Development: One of the major flaws identified by the study team was that the interpretation of capacity development was highly restricted. It was limited to the provision for training. In this respect, the study team has suggested that EFA, as a holistic approach to education reforms, use capacity development as an integrated approach to the development of the capacity of human resources, institutions and the community.

School Management and School Improvement Planning: The study has revealed that in general, community hand-over of schools has brought forth good results. however, the communities with poorer strengths were unable to take on such leadership. In this sense, the mission severely lacked strategies and action programs on promoting community strength to lead the schools with demonstrated ownership.

Teacher Training, Deployment and Professional Development/Support: The study has revealed that despite the increase in teacher quota and trained number of teachers over the period, the overall effort was inadequate to face the challenges set for 2015.


22


District Education Offices and NGO Partnerships: Keeping in view the technical and managerial support required at district level to execute various programs in respect with the sentiments of the mission of EFA, the existing capacity and expertise of the district education mechanism and local partner organizations were insufficient not only in quantity, but also quality.

Database Management and Analysis: The team study has identified that the efforts made and achievements received were appreciable with respect to the data collection and execution of Education Management Information System (EMIS) at central level. however, it required more steps to be done at the district and the community level.

Financial Management: The study results have revealed that despite the fact that the country was investing more of its gross domestic production (gdP) to primary education compared to international practices, the delayed intervention still resulted in its inadequacy.

A total of ten budget headings are used for budgeting and tracking expenditures under EFA. Not all of these headings have funds allocated each year. table 2.1 below shows how the allocations between the headings have moved over time. These allocations are made after the pooling donors review the proposed Annual Strategic Implementation Plan (ASIP) and Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWPB).

Approximately 70% of the EFA Program is funded by the goN while 30% is funded by development Partners (dPs). hence, the goN has, with the help of the pooling donors, annually increased the budget allocations. clear moves have been made to decentralize the implementation of the Program through increased allocations for civil works to districts and then to schools. The dPs are pressing for 20% of public spending for education sector where, over the period of 2004/05 to 2006/07, the sectoral allocations ranged between 16% and 17.3%.1

table 2.1: allocation of Efa budget heads 2004-09 (npr ‘000)budget heads 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09

primary teachers’ salary -- 7,009,258 7,477,834 9,432,602

non-formal education 4,211 4,503 4,640 5,155 5,651

non-formal education capital 97 0 0 0 0

teacher record office 178,804 291,075 235,000 240,585 240,662

Special education council 27,832 33,600 34,000 34,400 40,016

teacher pension facility 295,881 576,040 780,000 790,000 790,000

efA center recurrent 54,203 51,700 70,048 425,532 1,144,062

efA center capital 74,474 24,100 0 0 13,400

efA district recurrent 2,624,127 2,797,136 3,491,784 4,228,985

efA district capital 302,338 558,662 811,182 1,539,500 2,907,600

Source: efA Joint evaluation report (2009), p. 63

1Financial Comptoller General Office, Consolidated Financial Statement, Fiscal year 2006/07, page 135

The DPs are pressing for

20% of public spending for

education sector where,

over the period of 2004/05 to 2006/07, the sectoral allocations

ranged between 16%

and 17.3%

23

As presented in above table, there was a 23% increase in total allocations per year for first two years of the program, followed by increases of 9%, 31% and 36% in the three subsequent years. The salaries of the teachers remained by far the largest budget heading. As a percentage of total allocations, it has fallen from 66% to 56.9%. Shares of the districts, recurrent and capital, have increased steadily from 27% of the total in 2004/05 to almost 33% in 2008/09. Since the program has been implemented at district and school levels, this trend is easily explained. The share of district capital allocations, representing the building of classrooms and other school civil works, has quadrupled from 3.3% in 2004/05 to 13.4% in 2008/09. In terms of EFA implementation allocations the centre has only 1.4% in year one, 2.7% in year four and 5.3% in the present year.

The information presented in table 2.3 reveals the increase in EFA budget allocation over time.

table 2.2: Efa budget allocation and Expenditure at current pricesfiscal year rfA budget npr expenditure npr increase in budget

Allocation

2004/05 9,511,419,236 9,063,443,275

2005/06 11,095,025,000 10,447,745,964 16.65%

2006/07 12,573,873,703 12,040,914,013 13.33%

2007/08 16,035,750,913 15,238,670,308 27.53%

2008/09 22,372,114,000 39.51%


Another indication of the effort of goN to improve budget allocations to education is shown in table 2.3. This shows that on the average, there has been almost 39.51% increase in budget allocation in EFA budget at current prices for the years 2008/09; such increase commenced from 2004/05 by 16.65%.

Further, the EFA budget allocation per student has been presented in table 2.3 below:

table 2.3: Efa budget allocation per studentfiscal year budget per Student

in current npr

deflator budget per Student in

constant 2005 prices

changes in unit

budget Allocation

2004/05 2,638 6.2 2,638

2005/06 2,621 6.6 2,448 -7%

2006/07 3,047 7.4 2,620 +7%

2007/08 4,043 7.6 3,436 +31%

2008/09 5,217 8.0 4,059 +18%


As presented in table 2.3 above, there has been significant increase in budget per student in the years 2007/08 and 2008/09, at an average deflator of above 6.5% every year.


24


The information in table 2.4 presents the relevant information on EFA budget as in ASIP, red Book (revised) for FY 2007/08.

table 2.4: Efa budget as in asip, red book (revised) for fy 2008/09Sno particulars total district budget

(npr ‘000)

1 expanding ecd in districts 389,067

2 ensuring access to all 1,677,860

3 meeting the learning needs of all 2,492

4 reducing illiteracy 110,836

5 eliminating gender disparity 574,327

6 improving all aspects of quality education 2,008,706

7 others 267,996

total 5,031,284

Similarly, the Status report (2008) produced by Monitoring and Supervision Section, dOE, MOE and goN has outlined following comparison between physical and financial progress at central level activities, with component-wise weight given in FY 2007/08.

table 2.5: comparative display of physical/financial progress at central level activities in fy 2007/08

efA components Weight physical progress (%) financial progress (%)

expanding ecd 0.21 2 3

ensuring access to all 1.69 94 75

meeting the learning needs of all 3.65 98 99

reducing illiteracy 2.5 100 95

eliminating gender disparity 0.23 100 86

improving all aspects of quality

education

87.91 99 100

others 3.87 92 85

total progress 99 96

Source: Gon, moe, doe, Status report (2008); efA, SeSp, cSSp and Shep, p. 64.

It is clearly evident that the main reason of the high physical progress rate was due to improving all aspects of quality education, with 100% of implementation rate constituting more than 85% of the central-level budget. Further, the following table presents the comparison between physical and financial progress at district-level activities, with component-wise weight given in FY 2007/08.

25

table 2.6: comparative display of physical/financial progress at district level activities in fy 2007/08

efA

components

implementation

progress in %

2006/07 2007/08 difference

between

06/7 and

07/08

physical financial physical financial physical financial

ecd 98.1 88.8 99.4 94.6 1.3 5.8

ensuring Access

to All

96.7 93.9 99.0 93.1 2.3 (0.8)

meeting the

learning needs

of All

56.2 49.9 92.4 85.2 36.2 35.3

reducing

illiteracy

97.8 93.4 97.2 92.9 (0.6) (0.5)

eliminating

gender

disparity

99.0 92.2 99.9 89.0 0.9 (3.2)

improving

all aspects

of quality

education

96.4 95.0 97.2 94.3 0.8 (0.7)

educational

management

93.0 76.5 98.1 82.9 5.1 6.4

total recurrent 95.2 91.3 98.0 92.4 2.8 1.1

total capital 99.8 99.6 94.7 80.0 (4.9) (19.6)

Grand total 97.5 95.5 97.0 90.3 (0.5) (5.2)

Source: Gon, moe, doe, Status report (2008); efA, SeSp, cSSp, and Shep, p. 64.

The figures presented in above table confirm that the total expenditures were better in the years 2006/07 compared to that of 2007/08, whereby recurrent expenditures kept steady in the years 2007/08 resulting in high efficiency of budget utilization. In case of capital expenditure, years 2007/08 were relatively less effective compared to that of FY 2006/07.

Summary of Some of the EFA Achievements in Nepal: As specified in the joint evaluation report (2009), the following are some of the early results of EFA 2004-09 program intervention in the country:

1. overall primary enrollment number increased remarkably by almost 19% from 4,025,692 to 4,782,313

2. net intake rate (NIr) at grade 1 increased steadily, making room for almost 83% of children at school


26


3. primary net enrollment rate (NEr) increased considerably from 83.5 in 2003 to 91.9 in 2008

4. gross intake rate at grade 1 grew from 126% to 148% in the five years of the EFA program, whilst primary gross enrollment rate (gEr) remained high for boys and girls; (These figures suggest that there continues to be substantial under- and over-age enrollment.)

5. gender parity index (gPI) for all types of primary school rose from 0.83 in 2003 to 0.98 in 2008 (The gPI for the primary NEr shows a steady improvement from 0.87 in 2003 to 0.97 in 2008.)

6. enrollment of dalits increased substantially and there are now almost one million dalits in school (gPI for dalits is comparable with the general trends.)

7. enrollment of janajatis, increased substantially from less than one million to almost 2 million in 5 years, with near gender parity

8. With respect to the enrollment of other disadvantaged children/out of school children, a calculation based on the NEr suggests that 8.1% of primary age children still remained out-of-school. In addition, there are a large number of children who are officially enrolled in schools but have dropped-out or are failing to attend regularly.

9. Survival rate to grade 5 and transition to lower secondary show inconsistency in improvement and the number of dropouts remain a key concern. There are considerable variations across districts. Many children who do complete grade 5 do not continue into lower secondary level of education, at this point gender and socio-economic gaps widen remarkably.

10. repetition rates have decreased by 9% over the past decade but by only 3-4% points since 2005. They continue to be higher for grade 1, for which they have fallen from 35% to just fewer than 30%. The repetition rates in general, do not vary significantly for girls and boys.

11. Enrollment in Ecd programs to promote the enrollment of students in grade 1 with some experience of an Ecd program has increased substantially from 11% in the first year of the EFA program to 35% in 2008. There are variations among districts.

Source: royal norwegian embassy, Kathmandu, nepal ([email protected])

2.5.2 secondary Education support program (sEsp)The Secondary Education Support Program (SESP) builds on Secondary

Education development Project (SEdP), implemented between 1993-1999 in Nepal (International development Association [IdA], 2009). The joint study report of IdA (2009) has stated that based on the outcomes of the SEdP project, the nation witnessed the establishment of 25 training centers, strengthening of the Office of controller of Examinations (OcE), strengthening of curriculum development center (cdc) and training provided to more than 10,000 teachers at secondary and lower secondary level.

In response to the 10th five-year plan’s priority development objective of poverty reduction and human development, the SESP policy objective was innovated to expand quality secondary education to contribute to the development needs of the country (IdA, 2009).

27

In terms of GER, NER and GPI indicators, SESP has reached its enrollment targets for both lower secondary as well as secondary level

According to SESP core document, creation of SESP was guided by three distinctive objectives:

1. to improve quality and relevance of public secondary schooling,2. to improve access to public secondary schooling with more focus on girls and

students from poor and disadvantaged groups and districts, and3. to develop the institutional capacity and management of central and

district education institutions and public secondary schools based upon a decentralized system of planning and management.

The SESP intended to enhance the gEr of lower secondary from 55% to 65% and secondary from 35% to 55% by 2007. Similarly, by the end of 2007, the project aimed to achieve 50% of girls’ participation in both lower secondary and secondary levels from that of 40%. The project also envisioned to raise the pass rates of grade 8 and School leaving certificate (Slc) giving rise to increase of number of passing students representing girls and other students from disadvantaged groups (IdA, 2009).

to achieve these outcomes, the $75 million project established some specific outputs. The expected outputs were as follows:

1. increased equitable access to improved learning environment, especially for educationally disadvantaged groups, ethnic minorities and girls

2. improved and more relevant curriculum, technically improved assessment and accessible instructional materials

3. integrated system supporting teacher education, development and management; and

4. improved instructional capacity in the school sector based on decentralized planning and management.

Key Achievements Made by SESP: In terms of gEr, NEr and gPI indicators, SESP has reached its enrollment targets for both lower secondary as well as secondary level. The construction of school blocks remained an appreciable contribution of the project. Similarly, the scholarship schemes have also positively influenced in reaching its targets to enable access to lower secondary and secondary level (IdA, 2009).

As presented in Status report (2008), the following section shows facts and figures corresponding with different indicators of the project.

table 2.7: sEsp indicators on Enrollment rates indicators 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Ger: lower secondary 63.2 57.5 60.0 80.3 76.0 71.5 78.8 80.1

Ger: secondary 43.8 44.8 46.4 50.4 49.3 56.7 55.9 59.5

ner: lower secondary 39.4 40.4 42.9 43.9 46.5 52.3 52.9 57.3

ner: secondary 25.5 27.5 29.5 32.0 32.4 34.7 35.3 36.4



28


The figures presented in above table reveal that both gEr as well as NEr at lower secondary and secondary levels have been steadily increasing every year. however, there still exists a considerable gap between these two levels.

table 2.8: sEsp indicators for Quality of secondary Education indicators 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

ptr: lower

secondary

39.7 40.4 40.5 55.7 54.7 48.7

65.2 in

community

schools

69 in

community

schools

39.6

57.9 in

community

schools

ptr:

secondary

23.8 21.1 21.9 29.0 33.3 35.0

53.2 in

community

school

42.0 in

community

schools

26.6

38.6 in

community

schools

repetition

rate at

grade 8

10.6 15.2 18.6 n.a. 12.0 8.6 8.4 7.7

repetition

rate at

grade 10

10.3 13.9 17.9 n.a. 7.4 7.6 7.5 7.1

ptr = pupil-teacher ratio


Even as the above figures reveal that Nepal has made progress in terms of reducing the grade repetition and pupil-teacher ratio in last few years, these figures also raise a few suspicions. For example, the Ptr in community lower secondary has gone up in the year 2007 whereby the same is quite low in the secondary level in year 2007. It suggests that there may be a very high drop out rate in secondary level at this period which is again contradicting with the national database of less than 10% drop-outs in secondary level.

In terms of quality of education, IdA study (2009) has taken reference of Slc pass rates as the key indicators of measurement of quality of education, which in itself may remain questionable since end-results should not be taken as the sole measures of quality of process. compared to 17.7% of national Slc pass rate of 2002/03, it has reached to 53.9% in 2007/08, however the girls’ national average still remained below the national average at all times with significant reduction of such gap.

IdA (2009) study report has further identified that other significant contributions made by the SESP included significant development in curriculum, teacher training, student assessment and examinations, more focus on female teachers and teachers representing disadvantaged groups and minorities and improving institutional capacity at national, district and community level. Strengthened School Management committees (SMcs), Parent-teacher Associations (PtAs) and improved planning and management of the schools were some of the appreciable achievements of this project.

Even as figures reveal

that Nepal has made progress

in terms of reducing the

grade repetition and pupil-

teacher ratio in last few years, these figures

also raise a few suspicions

29

With respect to institutional management and capacity building, the Status report (2008) has revealed following activity-wise implementation results:

table 2.9: sEsp physical and financial target and achievementsActivities targets Achievements

physical financial physical % financial %

program on school

accreditation, social

audit, school grants

operational manual,

Sip and annual

program

monitoring

15,833 13,882.60 14,872 94 11,772.96 85

partnership with

teachers unions

(school mapping,

code of conducts,

regularity of

teachers)

75 3,750.00 63 84 3,054.32 81

one-day orientation

for superintendents

on SLc examinations

75 150.00 74 99 184.00 123

running opening

school through

nced

5 2,435.00 4 80 929.98 38

administrative cost

for lower secondary

schools

3,528 77,616.00 2,964 84 52,193.48 67

administrative cost

for secondary schools

3,826 95,989.00 3,133 82 71,724.53 75

materials for school

teachers (LSS and SS)

28,922 14461.00 27,855 96 15,078.70 104

operating costs of

feeder hostel

20 3,655.00 20 100 3,213.40 88

operating costs of

mountain hostel

7 1,176.00 5 71 435.00 37

monthly wall bulletin

and newspaper

publication

75 1,125.00 73 97 1,079.61 96

program monitoring 75 2,250.00 73 97 2,145.99 95



30


The following figures present the performance status of the project in terms of capital expenditure.

tablE 2.10: comparison on targEtEd program and achiEvEmEnt for 2004/05 to 2007/08

Activities 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08

pt pp pt pp pt pp pt progress

%

financial

allocation

in ‘000

progress

%

school construction and

rehabilitation in 10 pids

90 89 150 135 190 187 135 134

99%

228,780 101

classroom construction

(including non-pids)

-- -- 400 350 172 36 -- -- -- --


(based on cost-sharing)

-- -- -- -- -- -- 1,124 998

89%

724,980 88

construction/

rehabilitation

of mountain hostels

-- -- 3 1 3 1 4 4

100%

30,595 17

extension and

conversion

of feeder hostel

7 6 10 9 -- 9 -- -- -- --

development of district

examination committee

facilities

30 30 29 26 13 13 8 8

100%

17,840 68

school grant for


-- -- -- -- 50 32 -- -- -- --

development of lead

resource centers

-- -- 40 -- 26 20

77%

-- -- -- --

construction of girls’

toilets

(grant for school)

-- -- -- -- 65 56 46 44

96%

110,535 74

materials for resource

centers/deos

-- -- -- -- 75 75 -- -- -- --

furniture for resource

centers/deos

-- -- 28 28 75 75 -- -- -- --

ict provisions

at deo, Lrc, rc,

and schools

-- -- 100 67 704 675

96%

-- -- -- --

internet connectivity

for schools

-- -- -- -- -- -- 200 200 36,550 92

procurement of laptops

for schools

46 27

59%

3,450 59

Source: Gon, moe, doe, Status report (2008); efA, SeSp, cSSp and Shep, pp 76-77.

The above figures confirm that except in the case of rehabilitation of mountain hostels, other areas have received above 60% of progress in the implementation of various capital expenditure-based performance of the project.

31

The first and foremost limitation of the project is that it was implemented without establishing any base-line information. Thus, any claim for the attainment of its objectives, goals, or outcomes becomes baseless since no measure can either be established or claimed in the absence of comparison of the change made by the project. Other equally important interventions might have likewise created impact on such change.

2.5.3 school sector reform program (ssrp)Since the passage of almost a decade, Nepal has been undergoing conceptualization

of integrating grades 1 to 12 within the system of school education. As specified in the core document of SSrP (MOE, 2007), the process of developing and implementing this school system was initiated as early as 1989, with the enactment of the higher Secondary Education Act. The need for structural adjustments to the integrated school system was emphasized by the Basic and Primary Education Master Plan-1997.

The last decade also witnessed national and support agency readiness for a gradual shift in the Nepalese school sector education. The shifts are more visible in two respects—(i) shift from project to program to sector-wide approaches, and (ii) shift in funding modalities from bilateral to pooled to budgetary support. Such shifts are taken as part of learning lessons achieved by means of adopting numerous projects using different modalities of funding and implementation.

The Education for All/National Plan of Action (EFA/NPA, 2001-2015) emphasizes the need for harmonizing school education by integrating grades 1 to 12 into the school system. The tenth Plan (2002-07) recognizes the centrality of schools in developing human potential and reducing poverty. The Plan also articulates the need for adopting a holistic approach to the school sector development.

Encouraged by the achievements of EFA sub-sector approach and the Secondary Education Support Program (SESP), goN has demonstrated its commitment to embark on School Sector reform (SSr) with grades 1-12 as an integrated school system in a phased manner from 2009/2010 onwards.

Paudel (2008) has claimed that the comprehensive Peace Accord has contributed to creating a positive environment conducive to peace and reconciliation in the country. despite the challenges that persist towards institutionalizing the peace process, the Interim constitution of Nepal (2006) provides a statutory mandate for the consolidation and the expansion of basic education services across the country.

In response to the aspirations of the people and with the spirit of the constitution, the Ministry of Education initiated a School Sector reform (SSr) for providing universal primary and basic education to achieve the Millennium development goals (Mdgs) and Education for All (EFA) dakar Framework of Action. For this, SSr was crafted:

1. to bringing the whole school structure under one system and improving governance, management and financing in education

2. to enhancing schools’ systemic capabilities to use human, physical, financial and information resources more efficiently for quality education that is inclusive and participatory


The aspirations of the people and with the spirit of the Constitution, the Ministry of Education initiated a School Sector Reform (SSR) for providing universal primary and basic education

32


3. to benefiting local communities and children by harmonizing educational choices in terms of relevance, appropriateness and value orientations

4. to promoting the roles of community and the local government in governance, management, resourcing and quality assurance in education and

5. to instituting education from human, economic, political, socio-economic and protection point of views and harmonizing efforts and resources for results-based management in the education sector.

The Vision of SSRP: SSrP envisions that by 2015, the reforms in school education contribute to the transformation of each school, each teacher and each child.The vision of SSRP confirms a patent need to involve the community at large for the successful accomplishment of the program.

Objectives of SSRP: The SSrP was primarily developed to increase access to and improve the quality of school education, particularly basic education (grades 1-8), especially for children from marginalized groups.

table 2.11: program key performance indicators (kpis) are the following:

Kpi baseline (2009) endline target (2014)

(a) ner of basic education (grade 8) 73% 85%

(b) basic education completion rate

(grade 8)

41% 66%

(c) Gpi of basic education (grade 8) 95% 98%

(d) Student Learning Assessment in grade

8 to be at par as internationally accepted

learning assessment system in place

Policy and Strategic Frameworks: As envisioned in the core document, some of the key policies and their strategic alternatives have been presented in table 2.12 as follows:

table 2.12: policies and strategies of ssrppolicy Strategy

Governance and management

At the sub-national levels, as local

governments form, there will likely be

similar relationships between governance

and management bodies. At the school

level, the local government will be the

governance body and the Smc the

management body.

33

policy Strategy

Structure of School System

the structure of school education will comprise

grades 1-12; basic education running between

grades 1-8, and secondary from grades 9-12.

the vocational education stream will begin at

grade 9 and have 2 levels: (i) junior technical

for two years beyond grade 8, (ii) senior

technical for four years beyond grade 8. non-

formal students can be mainstreamed through

school tests. Alternative and formal schooling

will be made compatible to permit students

to complete their education through either

system. in view of the contributions of ecd in

access and quality of basic education, the ecd

program will be expanded both in schools and

communities in collaboration with community-

based nGos.

foundation with grades 1-3, primary with grades

1-5, and upper primary with grades 1-8. these

schools will operate under an integrated technical

support system of basic education such as,

curriculum implementation, classroom delivery,

assessment and examination. At the Secondary

level, there will be two stages of schooling:

secondary with grades 1-10 and higher Secondary

with grades 1-12. these schools will operate under

an integrated technical support system. Stand-

along schools with grades 9-10 only or 11-12 only

will be discouraged to operate. Government will

continue to support and encourage ecd programs

and implement them through community-based

system and through schools.

decentralization

education governance will be the shared

responsibility of the central and local

governments. the relationships of authority

and accountability between the national,

sub-national and local levels will be fully-

aligned with any future changes in overall

government structure. School management

functions will remain with Smc. the

emphasis will be placed on school-based

management accountable to parents and

children. the current scheme for community

management of schools will be encouraged.

the moeS will retain responsibilityfor policy

formulation, coordination, planning and budgeting

and monitoring progress towards national policy

goals and strategic objectives. Local government

will prepare evidence-based periodic plans for

providing all school-age children with basic

and secondary education through formal and

alternative modalities. Local government will

also identify potential barriers that may inhibit

children from attending school. Strategies for

formulating such plans include: school-mapping,

situational analysis, and gathering information from

other sources. School establishment, upgrading,

merging and relocation will be planned based on

the evidence. Such plan will be implemented in a

phased manner.

Accountability

Schools will be accountable for the

students’ learning. parents and guardians

will be accountable for their students’

regular attendance and the government will

be accountable for providing the minimum-

enabling conditions.

An agreement between schools and the

government will be drawn up wherein the schools

are obliged to meet agreed learning outcomes

and the government is obliged to provide the

minimum-enabling conditions —including

an environment for equitable participation,

appropriate classrooms, instructional materials

and qualified teachers. Statutory provisions will be

made to legitimize these obligations. for this, the

accountability features for moeS and doe, local

government, and schools have been specified.


34


policy Strategy

Quality

Quality management has two main

functions: quality improvement and quality

assurance or control. both these aspects of

quality require setting national standards

and measures.

for quality improvement, targets and strategies

for achieving those standards can vary between

localities. for quality control, national standards

and targets are set centrally, but the strategies

for reaching and maintaining those standards

may vary. one aspect of quality control is setting

the lower limits or minimums, under each set

of standards; these describe the “enabling

conditions for learning” that the government is

obliged to provide.

enabling conditions

the government will define minimum

enabling conditions and ensure they are

met in public schools. the responsibility for

providing the enabling conditions will be

shared between levels of government.

the Government will develop a national framework

of norms and standards for enabling conditions.

the government will develop a mechanism for

defining minimum-enabling conditions and for

assuring that they are met. the school community

will, within the national framework, define its own

targets for quality improvement addressing the

local needs and conditions.

curriculum and textbooks

the national curriculum framework (ncf)

will provide the basis for a core curriculum

and will guide the development of a local

curriculum. multi-textbook policy will be

adopted to promote independent learning

by students being educated under diverse

situations. only approved and prescribed

textbooks in core subjects will be used in

the schools.

competency standards for formal and

alternative modes of education will be set by

the curriculum development centre (cdc)

in consultation with hSeb, nfec and ctevt

for grades 1-12 for general, vocational and

alternative education. the ncf will determine

core and elective subjects and content for

general, vocational, and alternative education.

technical and vocational subjects will reflect

job market demands. Local curriculum, content

and materials will be developed within the ncf

guidelines. Local level capacity will be developed

for implementation of the local curriculum.

instructional process

instructional processes, such as grade and

multi-grade teaching, will be determined by

the school management in consultation with

local government and within the nationally

defined standards. A child’s mother tongue

will be employed as the medium of instruction

up to grade 3. english will be taught as a

subject from grade 1 onwards. in secondary

education the medium of instruction will

either be in nepali or english as determined

by the Smc in consultation with the local

government.

flexible instructional arrangements will be

developed and employed using different

teaching methods. multi-grade teaching (mGt)

will be introduced as pedagogical choice in

selected schools meeting the nationally defined

criteria. A continuous Assessment System (cAS)

will be adopted in a phased manner with no

holdbacks in basic education. Local government,

Smcs, ptAs and local interest groups will build

consensus at the school-level regarding the

medium of instruction to be used at the school.

35

policy Strategy

teacher management & development

teacher selection and recruitment process

will be decentralized to the school/local

level. priority will be given to recruiting

females, dalits and other disadvantaged

groups when filling teacher positions. two

separate professional career paths will be

offered: one for basic education teachers

and one for secondary teachers.

teachers will be recruited from the licensees in

a transparent and competitive manner, using

guidelines provided by the central level through

these options—(i) Smc selects and recruits (ii) an

independent authority at the local level selects

and local government or Smc recruits, and (iii) a

teachers’ selection commission is formed at the

national, intermediate and district level to select

and recruit teachers.

equitable Access

equitable access goals include parity, equity,

and equality in participation, achievement

and authority for girls and marginalized

groups. the SSr envisages that all

marginalized groups including girls, dalits,

ethnic minorities, and differently-abled

populations should have equitable access

to quality, basic and primary education.

beyond access and success in schools, the

SSr is committed to ensure inclusion both at

institutional and individual levels. moeS will

be responsible for providing policy directions,

recommending statutory frameworks, and

developing strategies for the attainment

of parity, equity and equality for girls and

marginalized groups at management, service

delivery and student levels.

Among the many other relevant policies include the appointment of school head, school financing, technical functions, certification and examination, equitable access, entitlement, social inclusion and education expenditure.

The SSrP finances both recurrent and development expenditures, covering all of school education. The program focuses on the three pillars of Access, Inclusion and quality in: (i) basic education (grades 1-8) including early childhood education and development (EcEd) and literacy and lifelong learning; (ii) secondary education (grades 9-12); and (iii) institutional capacity strengthening, for effective delivery and monitoring of the educational services and products.

Basic Education: Access and inclusion in basic education focuses on expanding access to all children in Nepal through four main mechanisms—(i) physical expansion of schooling system, (ii) identifying and reaching the hardest to reach students from disadvantaged, marginalized and poor backgrounds, (iii) providing access safety nets/educational guarantee schemes, and (iv) through traditional schools.

The SSrP aims to enhance quality in basic schooling by—(i) developing and adopting minimum-enabling conditions (MEcs), (ii) development of national


36


standards for education service delivery and the establishment of the Education review Office (ErO), (iii) teacher professional development, and (iv) moving towards a competency-based curriculum.

In addition to these primary tasks, the SSrP intends to help expand the number of centers offering courses on literacy and lifelong learning and the number of Early childhood Education and development (EcEd) centers, which are both school-based and community-based.

Secondary Education: Addressing the demand of secondary education as envisioned by EFA, SSrP also focused to develop secondary level of schooling. Though the primary aim of the SSrP is strengthening basic education, the program also finances to a more limited extent, the expansion of access to, and the improvement of quality in secondary education.

At this level, SSrP also provides access to “soft tvEt” programs that improve the students’ ability to transition from a school environment to a work environment if they choose to drop out of school after grade 10. This will at least equip them with a basic understanding of the world of work and the opportunities available to them.

Institutional Capacity Strengthening: Finally, SSrP also focuses on strengthening and improving the capacities of the schooling infrastructure. This will contribute to the attainment of the other overall objectives of the mission. This improves capacity development across all levels of the system by leveraging it at the school level with a focus on the School Management committees and other community level organizations and at the district level for improved planning and execution.

A major thrust of the SSrP is on improving monitoring and evaluation of both the program, and in particular, the ability to carry out international standard learning assessments. The goN has committed to improving its capacity to carry out high quality learning assessment by partnering with an international agency of repute. Finally, the goN and the dPs have agreed on a governance and Accountability Action Plan (gAAP) as a way of ensuring a committed focus on improving governance in the education sector that will be financed through the SSrP.

These components will be implemented against the backdrop of the major reforms that have already taken place in Nepal including decentralization of authority to schools and school management committees, grants-based financing, decentralized recruitment of teachers by the SMc and financed by teacher grants through the provision of grants to schools on the basis of Per capita Financing (PcF), and provision of scholarship for children from disadvantaged or marginalized backgrounds who have been historically excluded from the schooling system.

In addition, to be able to implement the SSrP, the goN needs to further strengthen its policy base and the goN and dPs have agreed on a Policy Matrix that aims to strengthen the goN’s capacity to deliver the SSrP.

SSRP also provides access to “soft TVET” programs that

improve the students’ ability

to transition from a school environment

to a work environment

37

table 2.13: financing (us$ m)Source Local foreign total

borroWer/recipient 1,885.00 0.00 1,885.00

idA credit 70.50 1.00 71.50

idA Grant 56.50 2.00 58.50

bilateral Agencies (AuSAid,

denmark, dfid, finland, norway)

165.00 3.00 168.00

foreign multilateral institutions

(Adb, ec, unicef)

3.00 168.00 99.9

non-pooling partners (JicA,

uneSco, uSAid, Wfp)

4.00 5.00 9.0

financing Gap 250.00 4.00 254.00

total 2,619.00 16.00 2635

Implementation Mechanism: The SSrP is supported by the dPs through a SWAp approach. The dPs have agreed with the government that the program will cover a five-year period between 2009/10-2013/14. to help harmonize dP support and align this support behind a goN program, the SSrP will be implemented with the help of a joint Financing Agreement (jFA).

These days, the target for spending on education is almost 20% of the total budget. The direct support for education through the MOE has ranged between 16-18% of the budget, with additional resources of the schools through different local and national sources. The Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the National Planning commission (NPc) have requested the Ministry of local development (MOld) to ensure that about 20% of the share of their proposed expenditures at the local level be earmarked for spending in the social sectors, with a specific amount earmarked for education to improve budgetary predictability.

The jFA sets forth the joint provisions and procedures for financial support to the SSrP and provides a coordination framework for consultation between the signatories for the monitoring of SSrP progress. In addition to the jFA, the goN and dPs have agreed upon a code of conduct (cOc) that provides a common framework and a mechanism for regulating conducts of people and institutions, including donors and government authorities involved in education.

Implementation arrangements have been defined as such that at the frontline of the service delivery chain are the schools, the communities in which they are located, the teachers in the schools and the School Management committee (SMc) governing school-level activities.

The SMcs are projected to play key roles in the functioning of schools as per the 7th amendment of the education act that returned schools to the communities. In such a decentralized system, it is highly crucial that the capacity of the SMc be strengthened.

The village- and district-level implementing agencies are treated as the upper level of the service delivery chain, including village development committee (vdc),


Implementation arrangements have been defined as such that at the frontline of the service delivery chain are the schools, the communities in which they are located, the teachers in the schools and the School Management Committee governing school-level activities

38


district education office (dEO), and resource centers, referred to as cluster resource centers (crc). These institutions provide management and technical support, and help in program monitoring. The dEO provide policy oversight at the district level.

Finally, at the highest point on the service delivery chain is the MOE/dOE, and all other institutions that develop the strategies and policies.

The National Context Bringing SSRP in Existence: Social inclusion became high on the government’s reform agenda. The main strategy for achieving this goal is proportional representation in decision-making groups at all levels of government and management. The Interim constitution contains provisions pertinent to school education, namely: (i) Each community will have the right to receive basic education in their mother language as provided by the law; (ii) Each citizen will have the right to get free education up to secondary level as provided by the law.

The SSrP core document has emphasized that the coverage of services and facilities in Free Education at Basic Education level and at Secondary Education level has to be defined by an Act of Parliament. despite the robustness of the public school system across the country, Nepal witnessed a loss of life and faced consequences of psychological damage to students, teachers and parents during ten years of conflict. It disrupted the delivery of education services. Along with a general loss of peace and security, the decade-long insurgency also damaged the educational infrastructure. The restoration of peace has created an atmosphere more conducive to education reconstruction and development.

At the same time, the document has further explained that the recent political changes in the country also raised people’s expectations and demands with respect to public services. In this discourse, there will be greater demand from the people for the equitable delivery of good quality education. The educational management systems at various levels, including schools, will have to respond to these emerging challenges by improving their services.

Widespread poverty is still a striking feature of the country’s economic life. Also, the per capita income (per capita gNP) is estimated to have increased from rs.21,501 ($302) in 2004/05 to rs. 23,032 ($322) in 2005/06. The NlSS survey also showed that poverty in Nepal is largely a rural phenomenon, with 34.6% of population in rural areas as against 9.5% of population in urban areas surviving under the poverty line. A Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) has been established as an autonomous institution to implement programs to improve the life of lower strata of people (MOES, 2007).

currently, about 20% of the government budget is allocated to the education sector. In addition to public expenditure, households and communities are spending a substantial proportion of their resources on their children’s education. given the proportion of public and private spending, the value of education in terms of quality and relevance is now a matter of concern.

The government is committed to providing all children with free basic education of high quality and relevance. completion of basic education by all children will bring long-term benefits to the country. Minority groups and ethnic communities have been facing the problem of extreme marginalization. disadvantaged groups—

Widespread poverty is still a striking feature of the country’s

economic life

Completion of basic education

by all children will bring long-

term benefits to the country

39

such as women, dalits and ethnic minorities—have low levels of participation in education. raising the participation of these groups is a key challenge for the government. gender equity in society, in education in particular, remains an important goal. Female students still experience problems in successfully completing their schooling. various studies have recommended strategies for promoting female education including: reducing the direct and indirect costs of girls schooling; locating schools closer to communities; providing separate toilets for girls; appointing more female teachers; and involving more female professionals in the educational management system.

despite the hardships of insurgency in Nepal, a large majority of public schools remained open across the country, demonstrating robustness, commitment and concern on public welfare of Nepal’s public school system including teachers, parents, students, SMc members, community-mobilizers and administrators. Significant progress was attained in increasing the access of children to primary and secondary education. This was indicated by the attainment of NEr of 87% at primary level (Flash, 2006). Similarly, there has been significant change in gEr of lower secondary and secondary levels.

It is considered that the achievements in education sector might have been influenced by efforts made under Basic Primary Education Project (BPEP) I and BPEP II. however, assuring all aspects of quality of education to all children still remained a major challenge. As a result, the several efforts are under way for improving educational access and quality at primary and secondary levels under Education for All (EFA) and the Secondary Education Support Program (SESP).

The higher Secondary Education Board (hSEB), established in 1994 under the higher Education Act, 1992, has been instrumental in expanding access to +2 education in all 75 districts through community support. Nevertheless, phasing out proficiency certificate level education from the university system has remained a severe challenge to the state, and is a means of politicization. Over the years, hSEB has gradually obtained mandate (1996) to provide affiliation to private schools and institutions to run +2 level education, demonstrating its capacity in curriculum development and examination function.

The EFA program for 2004-2009 is based on the EFA National Plan of Action 2001-2015 and supports all six of the EFA goals: expanding early childhood development, ensuring access to all children, meeting the learning needs of all children (including the indigenous peoples and minorities), reducing adult illiteracy, eliminating gender disparity and improving all aspects of quality education.

Paudel (2008) has claimed that Nepal achieved significant gains in the following: (a) instituting and strengthening a functional and capable school system across the country; (b) creating a strong demand and participation in schooling by almost all groups of people; (c) establishing education as a human right and as a means for bringing positive social changes and empowering people; (d) establishing linkages between education and national and as well as local development; (e) enhancing the quality and efficiency of the school system; (f ) achieving the goals of universal primary education; (g) reducing gender disparity and making education equity based and inclusive (h) institutionalizing the concept of community participation in governance and management of schools; (i) developing a strong collaborative


Significant progress was attained in increasing the access of children to primary and secondary education. This was indicated by the attainment of NER of 87% at primary level

40


network between various aid agencies including international, national and local education development partners; (j) harmonizing donor support in the sector by bringing all major donors under one pooled funding and developing a management mechanism; and (k) making reform an ongoing process.

At the same time, Paudel (2008) has identified that the challenges were more visible in many respects –

i. reaching All the children in the countryii. enhancing quality, efficiency and relevance of the systemiii. making education equity-based and inclusive in a meaningful sense for all

girls, poor, marginalized and remote/distant-area childreniv. improving the efficiency and effectiveness of education management and

governance system at all levelsv. institutionalizing the concept of collaborative education governance and

management system shared by central and local level actors/agencies where all have visible roles to play and contribute to developing an education system as per the context and needs of the local people as well as to support the national development process.

Nepal’s policy on education is guided largely by the ‘Education for All’ dakar Framework for Action 2000. The government of Nepal has accorded high priority to basic and primary education. As a result, the Net Enrollment ratio (NEr) at primary level reached to 89%. The encouraging factor in this regard is that the girls’ enrollment reached almost 50%. This raised the hope that Nepal can achieve the universal Primary Education (uPE) goal by 2015. however, there still remains daunting tasks ahead for mainstreaming children from marginalized and poverty populations, that account for the remaining 11%. The nation has to concentrate efforts towards ensuring the quality of education for those who are in the system.

The strategy of transferring the management of schools to the local community proved to be more effective. despite some difficulties, the local communities and stakeholders have shown enthusiastic support for the management of schools by the community. So far, over 4,000 schools are managed by their respective communities. In most cases the parents and local communities are expressing their satisfaction over the quality and management of their schools under the autonomous framework of school management. The government has given high priority to making schools functionally autonomous by ensuring resources and technical supports to these schools in order to enhance their capability.

Since all these developments were initiated through various types of projects, it was realized that an integrated approach to the development of national education would have been more effective. As a result, School Sector reform Program (SSrP) was designed and implemented since 2009.

The Status report (2008) states that the EFA, NPA has been divided into two program periods—EFA (2004–2009) and School Sector reform (2010–2015). The latter is popularly known as SWAp in education reform in the country.

The government of Nepal requested the World Bank to partner with them to support this ambitious agenda. The proposed project was well aligned with both the previous, and recently approved, World Bank group’s Nepal Interim Strategy Note (report No. 38119-NEP, 2007 and report No. 48279-NEP, 2009

Nepal’s policy on education

is guided largely by the

‘Education for All’ Dakar

Framework for Action 2000. The

Government of Nepal has

accorded high priority to basic

and primary education

41

respectively). The program aims to support the ISN by ensuring access to quality basic and secondary schooling. The Bank’s support will also help consolidate and strengthen key reforms.

While IdA Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are limited to the following, SSr program as a whole with goN and all dPs, including IdA, will monitor a larger set of outcomes, outputs and other intermediate indicators.

The program is also supported by eight other development partners (dPs) who pool their resources with the goN including AusAId, Asian development Bank (AdB), denmark, the department for International development (dFId), European commission (Ec), Finland, Norway and uNIcEF.

In addition to these, jIcA, uSAId, several uN agencies and NgO/INgO partners support the goN’s program directly undertaken in the school sector, particularly, the decentralization of decision making powers to communities and school management committees.

The SSrP is seen as a program that consolidates the gains achieved under previous programs, while simultaneously expanding the program coverage to include all levels of schooling. The success of past programs has created new challenges, such as meeting the “bulge” of children entering secondary education. Thus, the SSrP is envisaged as the continuation of support to education in Nepal in order to complete the EFA agenda agreed to by the goN and dPs over the last two decades.

The SSrP has come up as the final program in a 15 year Education for All-National Program of Action (EFA-NPA). The government has focused keenly on the education sector since the early 1990’s through a series of national programs, such as, the Basic Primary Education Projects (BPEP I, 1992–1998 and BPEP II, 1999–2004), and more recently, community School Support Program (cSSP, 2003–2008), Secondary Education Support Program (SESP, 2003–2009) and Education For All Program (EFA, 2004–2009).

Net Enrollment rate (NEr) at the primary level nearly reached to 92% in 2008, from that of 67% in 1995. gender Parity has been achieved at the primary and lower secondary level with a gPI of 0.98 and 0.96. These two indicators alone suggest that the progress has been quite remarkable through this sustained effort over the past two decades (IdA, 2009).

table 2.14: progress on key Education indicators, primary Education

indicators 1995 2003 2008

net enrollment rate (ner) % idA

credit

67.50 83.50 91.80

Survival rate to grade 5 % n.a. 59.70 81.14

Gender parity index (Gpi) 0.66 0.83 0.98

Schools completing Social Audits % 0 n.a 75.0

Source: moe (various years) and efA evaluation report (2009).


42


These achievements have benefited Nepal, pushing some critical reforms which have been implemented during periods of instability over the past decade. Some of these key reforms include: (i) devolution of decision-making powers to communities and school management; (ii) the expansion of demand-side intervention schemes to bring children from marginalized groups to the schooling process including per child financing and scholarships; (iii) the decentralization of teacher hiring through the provision of teacher salary grants; (iv) opening up of the textbook printing and distribution system to private sector players, and (v) harmonizing support from across many development Partners (dPs) behind a set of coherent and common objectives in education (IdA, 2009).

The government’s policy of local ownership through community management has been an important means of developing an accountability mechanism that relies largely on the relationship between the community and the school. This has proven to be an invaluable reform at a time when most other government services had come to a standstill due to the years of conflict. despite the substantial progress in the provision of schooling services, considerable challenges remain. Though the goN has made considerable progress towards achieving EFA targets, and has met some key Mdg goals, the country still faces significant challenges. First, nearly 8% of primary school-aged children do not participate in schooling and these shares increase sharply for higher levels of schooling. In the primary school cycle, internal efficiencies continue to be poor, with nearly 16% of children dropping out after grade 1 and 30% repeating the grade. grade 5 survival rate, by cohort method, is less than 60% and many who complete grade 5 do not transition to grade 6.

Secondly, direct measures of quality, reflected through student learning assessments conducted in grades 3 and 5 show only modest improvements in learning outcomes. More importantly, systematic measurements of learning achievements of internationally acceptable standards are still absent. With the EFA program scheduled to close in 2009, the SSrP aims to consolidate the gains made under EFA and address the remaining challenges described above.

Furthermore, the SSrP intends to expand the access to basic schooling (grades 1-8), while focusing on improving the quality of schooling.

Issues and Challenges Facing SSRP: As envisioned by the core document of SSrP, there are high and rising expectations for education system on the part of parents and students, social groups and the state.

One striking feature of the SSrP is its holistic view of schooling from grade 1 through 12. to achieve the goal of an integrated school system, regulatory, managerial and financial and technical issues and challenges need to be addressed by (i) integrating and harmonizing education policies, (ii) coordinating with technical functions, (iii) combining systems for teacher management and development, (iv) making formal, vocational and technical and alternative education modalities equivalent, (v) decentralizing school system management and public examinations system, and (vi) mobilizing sufficient finance for an integrated system.

On the other hand, improving the quality and relevance of school education whereby the school infrastructure, including physical facilities, teacher qualifications and materials, vary widely across and within the districts. In order to raise the

The Government’s policy of local

ownership through

community management

has been an important means of

developing an accountability

mechanism that relies largely on the relationship

between the community and

the school

43

level of schools to a common threshold, minimum “enabling conditions” need to be defined. quality improvement includes interventions in instructional process, teacher management and development and achievement evaluation.

It has become imperative to respond with swift actions on – (i) defining and enforcing norms and standards for service management and service delivery, (ii) harmonizing and coordinating teacher development with teacher management, (iii) building leadership at the school level, (iv) improving instructional process including curriculum and instructional materials, mother tongue instruction and multi-grade teaching, and (v) measuring achievement through public examinations, continuous assessment and national assessments.

Ensuring inclusive participation has been undertaken as another challenge in the mission. The education system has encouraged the participation of girls in general and children from disadvantaged groups in particular. however, there continues to be a marked disparity in education access that causes social tensions, widening income gaps and a heightened sense of exclusion. to create an environment that affirms the government’s commitment to social justice and equity, the education system must be proactive in removing barriers and building bridges to equitable participation.

Some of the pertinent issues to be addressed in relation to inclusion in education include – (i) attitudes that attach low value to girls’ education and require more household chores for girls, (ii) opportunity costs of education are greater for poor people and need be addressed to assure their support in the mission, (iii) lack of sanitary facilities appropriate for girls are discouraging them from attending schools and thus need be resolved as soon as possible, (iv) discriminatory practices persist in the teaching and learning process whereby the researches have proved that the boys get more teacher attention than that of girls, and (v) under-representation of females and disadvantaged groups in governance and management positions has resulted in less readiness of females in educational mainstreaming process.

decisions in education should be taken as close to the beneficiary as possible. This principle of subsidiary responsibility raises the participation of stakeholders, enables a more realistic problem identification and increases the efficiency of governance and management. As a result, schools will gain autonomy to deliver services for meeting local needs, recognizing ownership of local people to yield management results. likewise, the accountability framework adopted in the SSr will contribute to enhancing management capability, leading to high quality returns in schools and community. More importantly, it will make the school system responsive to change in particular to emerging needs by meeting the needs of children and local people.

Main issues with respect to decentralization of education demand clear reallocation of functions to bodies at all levels and strengthening their capacities to fulfill expected new functions.

Financing in education has remained as a major challenge at all times. Several studies and field-level consultations have revealed that inadequate and delayed disbursements of grant to schools, unclear guidelines and lack of skills to use the grant and lack of capacity in schools to manage the grant are some of the burning issues in financing. Sustainable financing for the education system requires commitment


To create an environment that affirms the government’s commitment to social justice and equity, the education system must be proactive in removing barriers and building bridges to equitable participation

44


from central to local levels of government. Appropriate policy interventions will allow for mobilization of resources from local governments, communities, NgOs, civil society organizations and the private sector.

In respect with the financing challenges, adequate resource mobilization for meeting the cost of free education, exploring sources for additional revenue for education, effective allocation and management of expenditures, improving the flow of funds, improving funding modality for better school performance, more transparent mechanisms for school financing and compliance with financial management and reporting requirements, particularly at the school-level are the main issues to be addressed.

sEction iii: lEssons lEarnt, challEngEs, conclusions and rEcommEndations

3.1 introductionOn the basis of overall reviews and discussions in the previous section, the study

team has developed a set of realizations. These are lessons learnt from the practices of various projects implemented, some concluding claims thereof and a number of corrective measures to improve the efficacy of overall programs in action. This section presents all of them in sequential order.

3.2 lEssons lEarnt1. Mainstreaming implementation through government structures rather than

establishing stand-alone PIus is a more effective way of supporting reforms.2. For any reform to be successful, there must be high-level political commitment,

continuous public dialogue and communication on progress of the reform. There must be bureaucratic buy-in, and beneficiaries have to be mobilized.

3. donor harmonization is best achieved when donors use country systems with the government in the lead.

4. clear and transparent resource allocation criteria and procedures can make significant contribution towards improving governance.

5. There has been tremendous progress on fiduciary issues under EFA, particularly since the adoption of the Financial Management Action Plan. The emphasis on these issues will continue under SSrP. The program has been designed with these lessons as key guiding principles.

6. The excessive pressure on improving grade 8 and Slc results has brought about irrational practices against the discipline of examinations. This has led to the high tendency of under-qualified students scoring high marks, passing Slc and subsequently being unable to continue education.

7. Because the entire project was framed by international expatriates, it did not adequately involve national experts as well as the members of the implementing institutions. The ownership of the project remained questionable. This confirmed the pervading donor-centric approach in the country.

45

8. Education has remained as one of the top priority areas in Nepal in the last 20 years. The education sector typically receives the largest share of the budget accounting one of the largest shares of public expenditure.

9. due to uncertainty of ever lasting political and governance system, the risk to institutional sustainability is greater in the current Nepalese context. This is aggravated when new political players attempt to politicize the schooling process, and re-centralize authority to various tiers of government and undermine funding modalities.

10. Institutional sustainability requires two things: (i) that the program build the capacities across all tiers of government and (ii) that school management implement and manage the program and ensure that the program is adequately staffed for this purpose.

11. This also involves streamlining bureaucratic procedures, building the capacities at the district level to effectively translate centrally-mandated policies and targets into meaningful programs at the sub-district level, and building the capacities at the school level to effectively provide schooling services, while simultaneously adhering to good governance practices.

12. Effective staffing redistribution of resources to meet specific program targets is an important task to maintain institutional sustainability.

3.3 challEngEsOn top of these realities, there are still formidable challenges facing almost all

sectoral developments in education in the country. Following in-depth reviews of a series of documents and reflecting on concerned experts’ opinions, a set of deeply-rooted challenges has been identified as key threats to such missions in the country.Challenge 1: The entire mission on ensuring relevance of education for all has been highly challenged in Nepal due to pervasive poverty, donor-centric approaches in social development, weak institutionalization of economic development interventions and deeply-rooted traditional value systems which are most often biased against promoting girls, women, minorities and children of special disability. For example, even the private schools are unable to enroll hIv-AIdS-infected children in school. A school in Pokhara was almost closed down by the community for having such children in school.

Challenge 2: Instability in national political and governance system has resulted in the ambiguity of curricular standards, class size, teacher-student ratio, defined levels of school education and broader mechanism for regular monitoring and evaluation of the progress. These issues are most often undermined by the people in power. The nation severely lacks a clear vision with respect to these.

Challenge 3: Nepal, being one of the poorest countries in the world, faces severe deficiency in financing education due to—(i) state’s inability to bear all expenses for developing education and (ii) inconsistent and donor-centric approaches and strategies in funding for education of least developed countries by the international humanitarian and development institutions.

Section iii: LeSSonS LeArnt, chALLenGeS, concLuSionS And recommendAtionS

Nepal, being one of the poorest countries in the world, faces severe deficiency in financing education

46


Challenge 4: Almost all the programs lack adequate vision for involving civil society and conscious group of beneficiaries—the adults who are in position to have their say—on any program implemented for the betterment of the society. As a result, the long-term sustainability has become more questionable. The feeling of ownership of these projects by those who use them is lacking.

Besides the above challenges, the entire mission has to work in a more robust manner to address the systemic readiness and re-orientations at all levels, making MOE, NPc, MOF, FcgO, AgO, MOld walk together by establishing intrinsic links between governance, management and resourcing functions (Awasthy, 2009). Equally challenging is the shift in focus for capacity development from centre to schools—changing the mind-sets.

3.4 conclusionsThe purposes of each program initiated for the development of Nepalese

education system were identified to be highly relevant for the promotion of equity, access, quality and system capacity for the overall development of education in the country.

however, the policies, programs and implementation strategies were observed to be weaker in the following aspects –

a. projection and promotion of the role of education as a human right and as a catalyst for social justice and sustainable development, as claimed by Education International (2009)

b. promotion of teaching as a prestigious and highly-rewarding profession, to lure more competent workforce in teaching in a more sustainable manner

c. shift from donor-centric approach of policy, program and strategic development to reality-based and localized envisioning, development and implementation.

d. establishment of defined baseline, evidence-based measurement of results as an outcome of any project intervention

e. providing adequate advocacy on compulsory primary educationf. involvement of grass-root people in the program planning, development,

implementation, monitoring and control phasesg. establishment of relevant standards of performance measures in different

respects of teaching-learning, capacity-building, information-processing and communication systems, as well as institutional management

h. promotion of a culture of recognizing the quality of education as its efficiency to create IMPActINg changes in human beings rather than just counting on numbers

i. recognition of skills, competence and professional qualification of the multi-lingual professionals in schools

j. allocation of a large share of program budget into teachers’ salary may not be a sustainable approach to development of education sector in the country since it will create a problem for the nation when donors withdraw their hands from this sector

The challenge is to shift the focus

for capacity development

from centre to schools—

changing the mind-sets

47

3.5 rEcommEndations1. The nation should establish effective measures of performance standards at

every level and function of education in process.2. All the responsible agencies in education should work closely to establish

the relevant baseline information before implementing any program in education that intends to establish change results in long-term due to project intervention.

3. to promote the primary education for all, the government should take proper policies regarding students’ protection, safety, security and compensation to the parents, in case the children are from severely poor families.

4. Primary education should be made completely FrEE and cOMPulSOrY to All since it will pay off in the long run with multi-facet development and prosperity of the humanity and progressivism in the country. There should be mass awareness campaigns throughout the nation.

5. The rights-based approach to education must be harmonized to make sure that the children with special features that prevent them from joining the common groups for education are given adequate opportunities. For example, the differently-abled children may not be in position to attend schools in the remote hills and mountains. Similarly, the children of the raute community may not readily come to public schools. The right to education of such children must be considered.

6. School feeding programs, health programs, physical safety (injuries, school violence, bullying, abuse, etc.) and sufficient learning resources may encourage parents to enroll their children in pre-primary and primary schools. Such facilities may also result in high retention in primary education.

7. child-friendly environment, well-equipped physical facilities, awareness among parents, active involvement of PtA, free education with necessary stationeries should be provided to students.

8. child-friendly environment may reduce high dropout rates. to create a child-friendly environment, the teachers should encourage students through love and affection. Appropriate physical facilities—playground, library, separate latrines for girls and boys, spacious place, availability of nurses or doctors, may attract students to be in the schooling system.

9. The students should be provided with ample access to safe, clean water and latrines and other sanitary facilities at schools.

10. In addition, annual examination system should be transformed into continuous assessment system (cAS) based approaches, in all grades levels in primary education. Evaluation and examination should be marked through internal and external performance as regular homework, class-work, group-work, peer-work and knowledge and skills gained and applied in and outside the classroom. Thus, proper evaluation should be done by class-teachers or subject-teachers.

11. to meet the EFA goals, the government needs to enhance the status, morale and professionalism of teachers, to bring them into effective participation of this mission. The professional bodies of the teachers’ unions should be taken as partner organizations to accomplish the purpose of EFA.


Primary education should be made completely free and compulsoryto all

48


12. Opportunities for professional development and support are important factors to develop teaching professionalism in the long-run. Otherwise they may shift to other professions. various studies by uNEScO suggest that proper policy and strategy should be made to attract candidates to teacher training programs and to improve teachers’ performance, motivation and work conditions.

13. The mother language of teachers of different ethnicities should be recognized and necessary certification should be ensured confirming their job security. In addition to this, local skill transformation programs should be introduced after certification of locally-trained professionals possessing such skills. It should be as a part of the local curriculum.

14. As envisioned by uNEScO (2008), the various ways to motivate teachers for professionalism should include the following:a. re-organize teacher-training institutions, open new teacher-training

colleges and subsidize non-state teacher-training institutions to build strong national mechanism for increasing the availability of trained teachers

b. maintain flexibility in teacher-training curriculum by balancing subject knowledge and skills with knowledge of learners, placing adequate emphasis on local language of the learners

c. offer adequate salary and benefits to the teachers to promote their comparable livelihood and standard of living, at par with other professionals in the community, resulting to their overall job satisfaction and social recognition.

d. promote teachers’ professional development through study opportunities, training workshops, in-service training and opportunity for level-wise promotion.

15. In order to retain more students in pre-primary and primary schools the curriculum should focus on child-centered and outcome-oriented curricula, promotion of bilingual and multilingual education and improving assessment.

16. The content of the curriculum designed by the government should be relevant according to the need of individuals, communities and societies.

17. The subject matters and the teaching materials used in the textbooks should be familiar and made locally available.

18. Innovative approaches like students’ quality circle, parents’ quality circle and teachers’ quality circles should be promoted to impart responsibility felt among All and to improve All dIMENSIONS of school education.

19. There must be robust counseling system for all students so that their personal, family and peer problems can be timely addressed and possible dropouts from school can be controlled.

20. On the other hand, where there are large class sizes, few learning resources and inexperienced and underqualified teachers, child-centered and outcome-based pedagogy may not be possible. In such a case, there are useful methods on the continuum between traditional approach of teaching “chalk and talk” learning and participation by children.

The motherlanguage ofteachers of

differentethnicitiesshould be

recognized andnecessary

certificationshould be

ensured

49

21. Thus, national policy and school practices should build on learner’s local language. This also plays a vital role in retention in primary schools. Basically, multilingualism is the norm in most of the countries. The public education system needs to recognize this fact. however, challenges remain in trained and skilled teachers in the mother tongue and their ability to use learning materials effectively and efficiently.

22. NFE program interventions should be paid with much concern by means of adequate financing, program diversification, standardization and recognizable certification of the learning accomplishments. There should be provisions of adequate reward and opportunity cost compensation of the learners in this mode of education.

23. Newer NFE education programs for widows, clinical workers in the industries, and housewives should be initiated to increase overall level of general literacy in the country.

24. The upper limit of teacher student ratio should be restricted to 1:30 per class in all places of the country.

25. Failure of any project or program intervention should be strictly subject to universal public accountability of each institution and of each individual involved in such mission.

26. teachers’ salary should not be made a part of development budget in the education sector. rather, it should be treated as an ongoing national expenditure.


Upper limit of teacher student ratio should be restricted to 1:30 per class

50


rEfErEncEs

Awasthi, l. d. Experience sharing on implementation of SWAp in education – lessons learned: A workshop paper on SWAp. 2009.

cambridge Education ltd and MEtcON consultants. Joint Evaluation of Nepal’s EFA 2004–2009 Sector Program. Oslo: Norwegian Agency for development and cooperation, 2009.

consultancy within Engineering, Environmental Science and Economics.Joint Evaluation of the Secondary Education Support Program.Oslo: Norwegian Agency for development and cooperation, 2009.

Education International. Education for all by 2015 – Education International’s Response to the Global Monitoring Report 2009. Brussels, 2009.

Koirala, B. N. Managing paradoxes: education for the sustained future. Education for Sustainable Development in Nepal: Views and Visions (A Journal of Educational Management), (2003).

Nepal, Ministry of Education, department of Education, Monitoring and Supervision Section.\ Education for All; Secondary Education Support Program; Community School Support Program; and Second Higher Education Project – Status Report (2008). Sanothimi, Bhaktapur, 2008.

Nepal, Ministry of Education, department of Education, Non-Formal Education center. Non-formal Education Center: An Introduction. Sanothimi, Bhaktapur, 2009.

Nepal, Ministry of Education, department of Education, Non-Formal Education center. Non-Formal Education Policy – 2006. Sanothimi, Bhaktapur, 2006.

Nepal, Ministry of Education. School Sector Reform - Core Document Policies and Strategies. Sanothimi, Bhaktapur, 2007. Available from www.doe.gov.np.

Paudel, B. N. (2008). Education Sector. A status paper in educational reforms. n.p., 2008.

rijal, c.P. “leadership readiness to implement tqM in the Nepalese secondary schools.” Phd dissertation, School of Education, Kathmandu university, 2004.

united Nations Educational, Scientific and cultural Organization. EFA Global Monitoring Report. Paris, 2008.

World Bank: International development Association. School Sector Reform Program (SSRP) – Project Information Document (PID). Washington, d.c.: World Bank, 2009.

nAtionAL cAmpAiGn for educAtion nepAL (nce nepAL)104, Jitjung marghthapathali-11Kathmandu, nepaltel: 01 6203009, 01 4102031email: [email protected], [email protected] Website: www.ncenepal.org.np

ASiA South pAcific ASSociAtion for bASic And AduLt educAtion (ASpbAe)9th floor, eucharistic congress building no. 35, convent Street, colabamumbai - 400 039 indiatel: +91 - 22 - 2202 1391, 2281 6853 fax: +91 - 22 - 2283 2217email: [email protected]: www.aspbae.org

exploring partnerships for education for all: (swap) in nepalaspbae.org/sites/default/files/pdf/swap...

Documents