Kathmandu, January 6

The Ministry of Education is mulling to introduce a new provision for direct promotion of teachers in line with the Civil Service Act.

Currently, there are a total of 107,853 permanent posts of teachers at various levels in more than 3,500 community schools across the country.

This facility to teachers is expected to encourage quality teaching and learning, which is the main motto of MoE’s School Sector Development Programme, which is going to be implemented soon.

SSDP will run from July 2016 to 2022 in line with Nepal’s vision to graduate from the status of a least developed country by continuing efforts to ensure access to quality education for all through programmes such as Education for All, Secondary Education Support Programme, Community School Support Programme, Teacher Education Project and School Sector Reform Plan.

It is learnt that the provision of teachers’ promotion is being mulled on the recommendation of education experts.

Currently, promotion is offered to teachers appointed under Civil Service.

But after the new provision comes into force, primary level teachers will also be allowed to compete for promotion to secondary level on the basis of their qualifications and expertise.

As per Civil Service Act, any section officer with five years of experience is eligible to fight for the post of under secretary, while those with seven years of experience can fight for the post of joint-secretary.

Mukunda Mani Khanal, under secretary at MoE, said, “We want to give same facilities to our school teachers. Therefore, we are planning to introduce such a provision in teaching service as well.”

Nepal’s new constitution (2015) demands a thorough reorientation of the education system through structural and functional reforms, including reforms in policy and regulatory frameworks. SSDP is a programme to ensure right to education guaranteed by the constitution.

As part of SSDP, the government is planning to attract graduates to fill at least five per cent of vacant positions in teaching profession in basic (Grade I to VIII) and secondary education (Grade IX to XII).

SSDP also plans to run teacher preparation programmes to supply adequate teachers for subjects such as science, mathematics and English, as well as social subjects.

It also plans to introduce programmes to support continuous learning and felicitate outstanding teachers with letters and certificates.