Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, February 25:

At a programme on ‘The significance of education day’ organised by the Education Journalists’ Group today, educationists said it would be better to celebrate the education day by reviewing and evaluating state-run educational programmes to improve the quality of education.

President of Nepal National Teachers’ Union, Madhav Prasad Adhikary, said the education day should be celebrated by evaluating and reviewing the progress (or the lack of it) made during the year by educational programmes in order to correct the mistakes. “The ministry should not just be limited to coming up with apt slogans, but should see that effective implementation of the slogans is being carried out. And the slogans should be properly planned to facilitate an effective implementation of those,” said Adhikary. “If the government could only stick to its promise of providing free education as per the need, then the education sector would have been much better by now,” he added. Stating the government, too, has limitations, director of Research Centre for Educational Innovation and Development (CERID), Dr Hridaya Ratna Bajracharya, said, “The education day needs to be celebrated in such a way that it reflects the education need of the country. It should address the problems and be more than just a ritual.”

Former secretary at the Ministry of Education and Sports Jayaram Giri blamed the problems plaguing the education sector to ‘planning in a hurry’. “We have a tendency to want everything in hurry. And the educational planners have made the error by planning in a hurry.” He, however, pointed out there was no way the achievements could be undermined, which were reached in such a short span of 50 years as compared to that of developed countries. “It is impossible to expect educational institutions to be turned to zone of peace unless peace is restored. The slogans should, thus, reflect the country’s situation,” he said.