Move aimed at giving a boost to performance of the schools

Kathmandu, June 28:

The government has begun categorising and streamlining public schools to encourage authorities of public schools to enhance their performance.

This year, 4,000 public primary schools have filled the ‘school accreditation forms’ provided by the Department of Education (DoE) for the categorisation. The government expects to complete the categorisation of 10,000 more schools by the end of the next fiscal year.

According to Dhruba Regmi, a section officer at the DoE, “The schools will be accredited based on physical infrastructure facilities, instructional facilities, skill of the teachers, accountability and transparency and overall performance.”

Based on their performance, schools will be ranked as A, B and C class schools, Regmi said.

“We have been providing some funds to the schools,” Regmi said, adding, “Now on, the schools will get grants based on the categorisation. This will encourage the schools to boost their performance,” said Regmi.

Janardan Nepal, the director-general at the DoE, said the school accreditation committees formed by the District Education Offices will verify the self-evaluation forms submitted by the schools. “The DoE will do a sampling review of the categorised schools after receiving the accreditation report from the committee.”

“The review is necessary because it helps us find whether the funds are being utilised properly,” Nepal said. The schools that fall under A and B categories will receive more incentives than the schools that fall under the C category. Based on the categorisation, the schools will be given the block grant, conditional grant and incentive grant. “We have submitted our budget proposal to the ministry for this programme and are expecting to receive some funds for funding the programme,” said Nepal.