Kathmandu, December 31

It has already been six months since the government passed the Local Governance Act, but the district education offices have not been able to hand over the power to the local bodies yet due to various reasons.

The Ministry of Education has already decided to shift education officers of DEOs under local government and many of the functions of the DEOs have been handed over to the local bodies in paper.

DEOs will be phased out from the coming academic session, but due government’s failure to deploy staffers at local levels, there remains still a confusion regarding implementation of the act. “The country has already adopted the federal system and the local levels have been handed over the responsibility of managing education system till Grade XII. So, DEO’s have automatically become defunct,” said Prof Mana Prasad Wagle, an educationist. District Education Office and Regional Education Directorate shouldn’t interfere in the activities of the local levels, he added.

“Until Federal Education Act is not implemented, debate and confusion related with jurisdiction of DEOs and local levels will continue. Even the regulations regarding the act have not been formulated,” said Hari Lamsal, secretary and spokesperson at Ministry of Education.

“Government has failed deploy staffers at the local levels which has become a major problem at the local levels,” said Prof Bidhya Nath Koirala, as educationist.

As many 1,430 staffers under the Ministry of Education have yet to be deployed at local levels. In some places, local bodies have appointed staffers to look after education sector on their own creating further confusion.