Nobody can dismiss the importance of being proud of one’s country, culture and heritage. And patriotism is something a citizen should feel rather than something imposed by someone else. Herein lies the source of the wide criticism of the royal government’s policy of introducing ‘nationalistic education’, as part of its 21-point programme. Preparations have reached an advanced stage; the policy, to become operational, now needs the Curriculum Development Centre’s approval and cabinet endorsement. The very first chapter of a report prepared by a nine-member School Level Curriculum Reform Suggestion Committee focuses on producing ‘nationalistic’ citizens and promoting job-oriented education. There can be little objection to the idea itself of producing employable citizens or of instilling a sense of patriotism in the young ones.

But objections have been raised against the government’s intentions, as judged by what it is seeking to include in the curricula, in the name of promoting patriotism. For any country, ultra-nationalism begins to breed jingoism. Probably the government does not seek to promote it. However, what most people disagree with is the government’s political agenda which aims to shape tender minds in an attempt to interpret the nation’s history to favour a certain school of political thought in the country. Ideally and in fact, the broad goals of education should be to produce citizens who can think independently, originally, and constructively, imbued with a sense of human compassion. Mere publication of books with photographs does not arouse public reverence for the persons thus shown, as testified by the wide protests that greeted a revised issue of a primary school textbook last year.

Unfortunately, the government has not learnt from the experience of others as well as Nepal’s own. During thirty years of Panchayat, a similar kind of ‘nationlistic’ education was introduced, and a separate paper ‘Panchayat’ was taught up to the Proficientcy Certificate Level to discredit the multiparty concept. But all this could not prevent the wide student movement in 1979 leading to a referendum and the pro-democracy movement in 1990 which did away with the Panchayat system. Though King Gyanendra had stressed the need for the country to produce “competent patriots” (in an interview to THT, January 15, 2002), the government’s present effort raises serious questions about the definition of patriotism. At least, it should not be something to serve the political convenience of those holding or seeking to capture power without the consent of the governed.