Kathmandu, January 20:

A three-member committee comprising representatives from Norway and Sweden evaluated the Formative Research Project (FRP) completed by the Ministry of Education earlier this week. The team highlighted the need to expand the project’s reach in analysing the causes behind the lack of implementation of government policies.

The FRP should help build the capacity of the researchers, the team said, adding, the project should analyse the context of research more critically.The Ministry of Education and Research, Norway, and the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) have signed an agreement availing technical assistance to Nepal to aid the researches into the government education policies.

Dr Hridayratna Bajracharya, executive director at the Research Centre for Educational Innovation and Development (CERID), informed that FRP conducted longitudinal studies in every six months in order to collect data on the improvements in the educational sector.

MoES had entrusted the CERID with conducting the programmes since 2001. The FRP collects data of educational development indices from which a progressive monitoring report is prepared. Till date, the FRP has conducted 30 case studies since 2001 and has 34 publications to its credit.

Dr Bajracharya informed that the CERID also organises progress monitoring programmes of the basic and primary education in the country by evaluating 40 different indicators.

The team said that the FRP had helped establish a “research culture” in Nepal, aided the implementation of educational programmes and educational planning in the country.