From the silent hills of Gorkha to the fertile plains of Siraha, small and large-scale schools dot our rich landscape like mushrooms in the rainy season. There are now over 34,000 schools across Nepal's seven provinces, and yet, despite such vast expanse of access lies a sobering truth – crisis of quality and leadership in education.

The Constitution of Nepal (2015) upholds education as a fundamental right, and successive governments, in response, have relentlessly pushed for school enrollment and expansion. Yet, despite the Government of Nepal's allocation of almost 10.75 per cent of the national budget towards education, many rural and urban schools echo with silence – silence not just of absent students but of absence of real learning.

The 2082/83 fiscal year budget has allocated Rs  211.17 billion to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) – a clear commitment to reform. However, the Flash Report 2082 by MoEST reveals a troubling paradox: many schools operate with fewer than 50 students and lack full-time principals or trained administrators. Flash II of the report notes that over 40 per cent of community schools operate without a full-time principal. In such schools, senior teachers serve as 'in-charge' administrators without training in administration, child psychology or community engagement.

To top this, the ratio of student to teacher remains poor and unaddressed. For instance, a school in Khotang reported only 9 students with 2 untrained teachers. The teachers are consistently overworked and underappreciated. There is an utter lack of leadership and motivation among teachers and positive learning outcomes among students. The parents, undoubtedly, are frustrated but remain without any option to move schools due to geographic and economic barriers.

Clearly, our focus then must be on qualified leadership for quality education. But Nepal's education policy has long focussed on enrolment rates, which perhaps is a worthy goal because it is quantifiable. Targets can be set, goals can be achieved, and statistics can be publicised. Net enrollment in basic education in Nepal has now crossed 95 per cent. The real question, however, is this: Are our students qualified?

According to the National Assessment of Student Achievement (NASA), only 1 in 3 Grade 8 students meet the minimum competency in math, and over half of Grade 5 students cannot write a complete, grammatically correct paragraph in Nepali. We are thus forced to ask: What's causing this?

Experts have repeatedly pointed out that resources are spread too thin. Instead of one well-managed school, we have 10 poorly managed ones. The teachers are not accomplished in new teaching – learning methodologies – and the administration cannot keep up with the growing advancement in technology. One of the most important but consistently overlooked missing links here is the lack of qualified educational leaders.

Despite the common belief that schools – especially in remote areas – can function well with trained teachers, motivated students, equipped classrooms and adequate funding, the absence of strong leadership has far-reaching consequences. Teachers don't receive professional development opportunities and remain unmonitored. School Improvement Plans go unimplemented, and ultimately, the community's trust in the public education system dwindles. Many small-scale private schools are no better off with schools being managed like traffic – simply trying their best to avoid a crash.

Strong leadership is vital to a school's success, yet in Nepal, it is often seen as a routine administrative role rather than a professional, transformative one. In many public schools, leadership positions are based on tenure, not training. As a result, leaders lack formal preparation in educational planning, pedagogy, curriculum implementation and administration. This lack of skilled leadership undermines teacher retention, government reforms and students' learning outcomes.

Creating better educational leaders is a systemic process that requires additional steps towards sustainability. We must begin by establishing national leadership training and certificate programmes that will equip school leaders with skills in changing pedagogy, school administration, inclusive education and data-driven planning. Recruitment must strictly be merit-based rather than tenure-based or referral-based. This will help passionate and capable educators rise to leadership roles.

Sustainability can only be achieved through continuous professional development opportunities built into the school leaders' performance. New leaders can gain first-hand experience in practising leadership through mentoring programmes that cater to creating mentor-mentee relations between experienced and new leaders. Job shadowing, which is often practised in official settings, can be duplicated between schools so that leaders can learn from each other's best practices.

We can ensure quality education across Nepal by creating transformative leadership, and this can only happen when school leaders have greater decision-making power, access to physical and digital tools and a supportive peer network that can change them from passive administrators to visionary leaders. We must, therefore, change our perspective and view school leadership as an important element in elevating the quality of school.

The focus now must be on appointing trained principals and honing their skills over time, creating leadership development programmes and offering incentives for performance. Without visionary leadership in schools, our buildings remain hollow shells, and our children lose what no policy can restore: time, confidence and potential.

Shreesha is currently pursuing her Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Educational Leadership at Kathmandu University