Kathmandu, July 8:

Stakeholders in the education sector today emphasised on various reforms in the field to bridge the gap between the rich and poor and improve the quality of education.

Kedar Bhakta Mathema, former vice-chancellor of the Tribhuvan University (TU), said since a major change is taking place in the country education should play a pivotal role in the whole reformation process.

Speaking at a national seminar titled ‘Changes in education section in new constitution and restructuring of the state’ organised by the Forum for Popular Education-Education Network, Nepal, Mathema said: “The government should shoulder all responsibilities of school-level education so that the rich and poor can have equal access to quality education and there should be equal contribution of government and private sector in higher education to improve overall education system of the country.”

Dr Labadev Awasthi, under-secretary at the Education Ministry, said the government should guarantee basic services like education and schools should encourage multilingual education.

Dr Awasthi said the government should provide free education upto grade eight and legal protection to the children who are deprived of education. Grade nine to 12 should be upgraded to secondary level education, he said. The state should take initiatives to provide education loan to students for higher education.

Ram Kumari Jhakri, Publicity Department chief of the All Nepal National Free Students’ Union (ANNFSU), said the government should ensure free education up to secondary level. “Commercialisation in the education sector should be stopped,” said Jhakri.

“There is a need to form a constitutional education service commission that would ensure free quality education to all,” said Jhakri. “The wide gap caused due to the private, community and public schools has to be bridged or else it would create huge trouble in the long run.”