Kathmandu, March 1:

The Ministry of Education and Sports has recently endorsed a regulation to bring the Madrasas, Gumbas and Gurukuls into the national schooling system.

Balananda Poudel, acting secretary at the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), said a majority of children are out of schools.

Around 18 per cent children are still out of school, according to the Department of Education (DoE). With the objective of bringing these institutions into the government schooling system, the ministry has also announced that these institutions will not have to pay fees for getting registered with the District Education Offices (DEOs).

According to a regulation, to correlate the national and Gumba/Madrasa curriculum at the primary level, such institutions must teach Nepali, English, Math, Social Study alongwith their subjects.

The lower secondary and secondary levels must also include Science and Health, Population and Environment (HPE) along with regular subjects.

Laba Prasad Tripathee, spokesperson for the Education Ministry, said the district education offices (DEOs) have already been informed about the regulation and have been asked to do the needful to register such institutions with the DEOs.

“In order to simplify the process, the government has made some rules. Such institutions should teach Nepali, English, Mathematics and Social Science along with their own course of study.” The regulation states that students studying in such institutions can get enrolled at public or private schools after meeting the set criteria.

It is estimated that 1.25 lakh students are studying in 2000 Gumbas and 1,500 Madrasas in the country. As per the regulation for mainstreaming programme for Madrasa and Gumba education prepared by the Curriculum Development Centre, around 1500 Gumbas are registered with the Monastery Management and Development Committee.

There are 20 schools under the ‘Gurukul education system’.