Editorial: Sharing the spoils

The distribution of the spoils among the political parties has contributed largely to making service delivery to the people in all areas inefficient and the organizations in most cases have gone from bad to worse as they are run by such political appointees chosen more for their affiliation to the party bosses or for their financial or other contributions to the parties or their top leaders than for their academic qualifications, related experience, managerial capabilities, vision, probity, innovation, moral and financial probity, as well as their spotless public image. This tendency has marred the country’s education system. The context here is of the posts of vice-chancellors falling vacant in seven universities this week. If the past is any guide, the same story will be repeated setting quotas for the coalition partners. While the seven appointments appear imminent, several professors, former vice chancellors and others have demanded that the top university posts should be filled with ‘apolitical’ candidates. The reasons given are that the appointments based on political power-sharing have tarnished the reputation of the universities and degraded the quality of higher education.

To bring about changes, mindsets of political leaders have to change, and to press for such a change, pressures should be mounted from all quarters

As for the completely ‘apolitical’ candidates, it may be a little impracticable in the present context where most professionals, including academics, are affiliated to political parties in one way or another. But the spirit behind this call is faultless. The culture the political parties have developed is one of filling almost any top post with their loyalists, even in the civil service and other government agencies, irrespective of their suitability. Some sort of distribution of the posts among the parties in power is unavoidable, but the government should be tough in screening the candidates. It does not matter so much if the appointees are sympathetic to party A or B, but their suitability for the post does and therefore the appointees should be above public suspicion, and they should be among the best available in their fields. On this area, the coalition partners will do well to reach an understanding and put it into action. However, preferably, the appointees should be free of any party-political loyalty.

But the disease is that the political parties and their leaders tend to look for only loyalists so that they could get their work done easily. The committees formed to recommend the names of vice chancellors are themselves made up of loyalists and they are asked to make recommendations according to the given formula of political power-sharing. The recommendation committee itself should be composed of independently minded figures of high repute in the education field if the persons to be recommended are to be from among the best in the field. Power-sharing has become so minute that not only vice chancellors, but rectors, registrars, deans, other high officials, and wherever feasible even campus chiefs, are appointed according to a power-sharing formula. To bring about healthy changes, the mindsets of political leaders will have to change, and to press for such a change, pressures should be mounted from all quarters.

Closure of colleges

The Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB) has scrapped the registrations of 39 higher secondary schools across the country for failure to operate them for more than two years. A large number of higher secondary schools have been scrapped in Lalitpur district and most of others are mostly in the remote hilly districts. Most of these schools were registered by the private sector while a few others by the local communities.

Although the HSEB has not given any reason why the Plus Two schools had to be scrapped, it can be inferred that the concerned operators could not run these schools due to scarcity of adequate number of students and qualified teachers. Most of the Plus Two schools were allowed to operate even in the rural areas hoping that the students would enroll at the local colleges after they pass the SLC. But the general trend is that parents want their wards to pursue higher education in urban centers where they can study science and management, the two major streams that are not usually taught at colleges in the rural areas where Plus Two schools normally do not find qualified teachers.