Proposed Education Regulation gathering dust at Ministry of Finance

Kathmandu, December 15

The proposed Education Regulation prepared by the Cabinet for implementation of the Education Act (eighth amendment) is gathering dust at the finance ministry.

The finance ministry is skeptical about the education ministry’s data regarding the number of temporary teachers, students, staffers and community schools.

“We are studying how much extra financial burden the new regulation would put on the government,” said an official at the finance ministry. He said the ministry was well aware of the poor performance of community schools and that nearly 200,000 students had left those schools.

However, the ministry is not in a mood to approve the regulation right away considering the additional financial burden it would put on the state.

The delay in approving the regulation has badly affected the implementation of the Education Act. According to the education ministry, around Rs 27 billion will be required to solve the problem of temporary teachers. The amount is nearly one third of the country’s total education budget for current fiscal.

The Education Act and the regulation has given temporary teachers two option either fight for permanent status or accept a golden handshake.

The delay in approving the Education Regulation has also affected budget allocation to early childhood classes being run in community schools. According to a data provided by the education ministry, more than 30,000 teachers are needed to run ECD classes throughout the country.