Kathmandu, January 21

The Department of Education has asked all district education offices to provide details of religious schools operating in their respective districts.

Issuing a public notice a couple of weeks ago, Alternative Education Section under the DoE asked the district education offices to provide full details of religious schools.

The AES has asked the DEOs to submit the details such as name, address and type of schools, the level till which they run classes and whether their buildings are private or community-owned.

The section has also asked DEOs to provide the number of male and female students in each class and the number of teachers along with their qualifications.

The AES had also sought the details in September last year. But as the details provided were vague, the AES has asked the DEOs to provide full and clear details.

The details would be used for formulating guidelines to regulate such schools.

Seshkanta Paudel, section officer, AES said they were currently collecting the details sent by DEOs. “We have yet to receive details of religious schools from all districts,” Paudel said, adding, “We want to update our records and formulate guidelines to regulate them.”

The government has been providing Rs 168,000 to primary schools, Rs 189,000 to lower secondary schools and Rs 245,000 to secondary schools in grants annually.

Currently, three types of religious schools  Gurukul/Ashram for Hindu community, Gumba/Bihar for Buddhist community and Madarsa for Muslim community  are in operation in various parts of the country.

According to DoE, there are altogether 895 religious schools registered across the country, while many more are operating without registration.

Of these, 745 are Madarasas (718 primary, 14 lower secondary, nine secondary and four higher secondary), 78 Gumba/Bihars (71 primary, six lower secondary, and one secondary) and 72 Gurukul/Ashrams (56 primary, nine lower secondary, five secondary and two higher secondary level) across the country.