Kathmandu, May 16

National Campaign for Education, a network of 286 non-government organisations and 13 organisations working in education and child rights, demanded allocation of at least 20 per cent of the national budget and six per cent of the Gross Domestic Product for the education sector.

NCE demanded more budget for the education sector and submitted a memorandum to Education Minister Giriraj Mani Pokharel yesterday. It said that as per the commitment made in various national and international forums, Nepal government must allocate education-friendly budget in the new fiscal year 2016/17.

During the programme, NCE also highlighted the need to reduce dependency on foreign aid and increase our internal resources to maximise the budget for the education sector.

NCE has further demanded increase in the education budget to manage sufficiently trained teachers and creation of an environment that allows them work in a dignified way.

“We demand that the government allocate enough budget to provide free and quality education from the pre-primary to secondary level,” said Raj Kumar Gandarba, president, NCE adding, “We think that the government should make public the fund allocated and spent in the education sector in a regular and transparent way.”

It said that the government should increase the budget to have one teacher per 25 students in the primary level and one teacher per 18 teachers in secondary level. Other demands of NCE included quality improvement in public schools by mobilising enough resources for community schools.

According to NCE, the memorandum was prepared after a discussion with stakeholders in education on April 28 during the Global Action Week 2016 and by taking into account findings of various studies conducted by the organisation.

During the programme, Pokharel pledged to address the demands put forth by the organisation.