Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, February 12:

The Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) will now work more in the role of a facilitator than in the operational capacity by providing autonomy to public schools and synchronising 10 branches into three divisions for better results.

Member secretary of CTEVT, Dr Agni Prasad Kafle, said CTEVT would now concentrate on decentralisation and on facilitating it. “It will start after the proposal is passed in the next council meeting, which is to take place within next week,” he said.

“Public schools will now be given autonomy to increase their accountability towards producing skilled manpower,” said Kafle. CTEVT was started in 1989 under government initiatives with the motive of producing more skilled technical manpower. There are 20 government schools and 200 private schools under CTEVT, which has around 15,000 students learning various technical skills. It has a total yearly budget of Rs 12 crore.

The council has also set up a strict monitoring unit to get the best possible results out of schools affiliated to it. Kafle said schools that are not operating according to CTEVT rules would be given an initial strict warning to make improvements, and if there were no improvements then the schools would be shut down. “This year alone 10 schools were closed down due to poor performance,” he said. CTEVT is also planning to establish three regional offices in Nepalgunj, Biratnagar and Bharatpur, with the central office solely concentrating in monitoring and facilitating.

The synchronised three divisions are technical services, quality assurances and general management divisions. Quality assurances include examination, skill standard and testing, and capacity building; technical services include super monitoring, research and information, accreditation and supervision, and curriculum unit, while general management includes financial, property and personnel.