The education sector in Nepal has been held hostage to a variety of problems. If teachers are in short supply, a majority of the educational institutes function with bare minimum facilities. But for the man-made hindrances the schools and colleges are subjected to are issues of harmful nature. For example, two peons and a driver had to be inducted as invigilators in Rajbiraj after the teachers went on a strike protesting the administration’s handling of a procedural matter. Schools in Nepal are a far cry from their counterparts in developed countries where, besides adequate infrastructure and trained staff, value education, moral ethos and practical aspects of education, including a ban on corporal punishment, have taken firm roots. Corporal punishment in Nepal’s schools has been a matter of heated debate. Even the Supreme Court was asked to intervene and nullify last January a statue that was deemed supportive of spanking. Equally damaging is child labour whereby minors are exploited and abused.

These are but some glimpses of a mosaic that have literally brought the education system in Nepal down to its knees. The methods staff — and even students — employ to gain the authorities’ attention to a given problem has often been so fundamentally flawed that they infringe upon the rights and freedom of others. While the peons and a driver in the case mentioned above may have acted in good faith, they, in doing so, have violated the law and more importantly made a mockery of the examination system. If peons could be invigilators, quacks will justify in being the doctors, assistants as bosses and mediocres as messiahs. Exams are essential aspect of the learning process and must be conducted by qualified, authorised and trained personnel. It is criminal of teachers to organise strikes coinciding with the exam schedule, a move that will have a direct bearing on students’ future, or for doctors to go on strike in hospitals jeopardising patients’ lives. Corporal punishment also interferes with the pupil’s learning process as it instils a fear psychosis on the latter. New teaching techniques do not consider spanking a classroom component. The State alone has the means to tackle all the harmful practices in the academic sector. Child labour and torture do constitute a major problem that can’t be left untackled — not any longer.