Bhaktapur, June 17

Educationists have warned that efforts to upgrade public school’s quality might go in vain if local levels failed to formulate education laws on time, and in a smart way.

As per schedule 8 of the constitution, secondary education management falls under the jurisdiction of local levels, but schedule 9 of the constitution puts education in the concurrent list of rights.

At an interaction programme, organised by National Campaign for Education Nepal, education expert Mana Parsad Wagle said the bureaucracy and teachers’ associations could influence the centre to keep their traditional hold in the education sector. “If the local levels do not act in smart way to bring management, teacher deployment and evaluation of secondary schools under their jurisdiction, they won’t be able to improve the quality of public education and make teachers answerable to the community,” he added.

Wagle also said the local government had an opportunity to make a concrete policy to improve the quality of education in public schools. “The media through their reporting should make the newly elected local governments act quickly,” he advised. He also said that the poor performance of  public schools would not change unless local authorities got power to appoint competent teachers.

Senior journalist Rajendra Dahal said education journalists should keep a close watch to expose anomalies in the education sector. He also appreciated the good practices followed by a few public schools in the Tarai.