A study panel formed last year to look into reasons for the poor performance from primary to high school level has found that the prevailing education system is by and large impractical and uses inefficient means and methods. The report further says a wide range of resources are thus being wasted each year in the name of education without reciprocal gains. Complete syllabus overhaul and a change in the approach to the entire examination system are among the suggestions put forward by the panel to rectify the existing anomalies in the sector. But other hurdles are equally numerous and difficult to overcome. Issues pertaining to gender problems, social hurdles, geography and locale, to name a few, are as much responsible as technical problems for the inability of more than 55 per cent students to secure pass grades each year. Disparities among SLC students from different parts of the country, for example, are more than just conspicuous. Exam centres are situated in places which are simply too far away for a majority of students, a hassle which consequently mars their performance. There are a plethora of other problems too.

There has never been any doubt that the education sector in Nepal is not as strong as those in the neighbouring countries. The overall pass percentages of the SLC and other exams are all too clear indications of the sector’s lacklustre performance. This extends to all levels, the university included. Paucity of funds is a major cause, though the syllabus is even less conducive, as it does not help the students imagine and explore. Schools and colleges, on the other hand, lay extra emphasis on commercial aspects alone instead of overall quality of the lessons imparted in the classrooms. Unless an institutionalised education sector charts out a course for the country’s schools, colleges and university so that they can all stand at par with their Western counterparts in the next three to four decades, Nepal’s progress on all fronts, consequently, will be decelerated. For example, the country’s offices are already teeming with inefficient staff, a reflection of the weak education system that has failed to instil moral ethos as well as practical aspects of education in the classroom. Now is the right time to introduce reforms, starting with secondary and high school education system.