Basic and Primary Education Plan I and II

In 2028 BS (Bikram Sambat, the calendar used in Nepal), the National Education System Plan came into force. After it, new schools opened all over Nepal, more children came to study and more teachers were appointed. The numbers grew every year, and the government's budget alone could not pay for all of it. Classrooms had to be built, teachers had to be trained and new courses had to be written, and every one of these jobs needed money.

To solve this problem, education development programmes were started with the government's permission and with help from international organisations of different countries. Programmes of this kind are called educational projects. They helped make education easy for everyone in the country to reach, and they helped build physical infrastructure such as school buildings.

The first educational project in Nepal began in 2038 BS, and projects have continued one after another up to today. The Primary Education Project ran from 2041 BS. Later, the School Sector Reform programme began in 2061 BS and the School Sector Development programme in 2071 BS.

In education, projects run with the government's permission or under its supervision. Every project has a fixed aim. A project is never started at random: what it must achieve, and by when, is decided before it begins.

An example makes this clear. Suppose a plan says that every school in a district will have a toilet within five years. It has a set period (five years) and a fixed aim (a toilet in every school), so it is an educational plan. A wish such as "let us make schools better" is not a plan, because it has neither a time limit nor a fixed aim.

Nepal's first educational project ran from 2038 to 2043 BS under the name Education for Rural Development Project, shortened to EPDP. As its name says, its goal was to link education with the development of rural areas. Because it was carried out in the Seti zone of western Nepal, it is also called the Seti Project. The Seti Project's work continued until 2048 BS.

The Primary Education Project (PEP) began in 2041 BS. It ran in two phases: the first from 2041 to 2045 BS and the second from 2046 to 2049 BS, eight years in all. In its first phase it was run in these six districts:

• Jhapa
• Dhankuta
• Tanahun
• Dang
• Kaski
• Surkhet

After that, the Primary Education Development Project ran for five years, from 2048 to 2052 BS. Its aims were to build school infrastructure, train teachers and develop the curriculum. Unlike PEP, which started in only six districts, this project was run in all 75 districts.

These projects did not simply follow one another. Some of them ran at the same time. Placed in order of time, it becomes clear which project led to which.

The idea of joining what had been learnt from the Seti Project and the Primary Education Project into one larger effort took shape in 2046 BS. This idea is the concept behind the Basic and Primary Education Plan. The Seti Project, begun in 2038 BS, ran until 2048 BS, and the Primary Education Project, begun in 2041 BS, also ran until 2048 BS. Both succeeded in meeting their aims.

Because both had worked, the government of Nepal and the donor agencies agreed to merge the two into one. The result was the Basic and Primary Education Plan (BPEP), whose first phase ran from 2049 to 2055 BS.

BPEP ran in two phases. The first phase covered 40 districts. The second phase, from 2056 to 2061 BS, covered all 75 districts that Nepal had at that time. That is why the first phase is called BPEP-I and the second BPEP-II.

BPEP-I was run in the form of a project, while BPEP-II was run in the form of a programme. Carrying it out, overseeing it and supervising it was the job of the Department of Education, which works under the Ministry of Education. The money came jointly from four donors: IDA, DANIDA, UNICEF and JICA.

• (a) To raise the quality of primary education
• (b) To increase children's access to primary education
• (c) To build institutional capacity in primary education and strengthen educational management

In simple words: quality means children really learn well at school. Access means every child is able to reach a school and enrol in it. Institutional capacity means schools and education offices become able to run themselves well.

• (a) To make primary education available to all and improve its quality
• (b) To increase children's access to education
• (c) To improve the physical infrastructure of schools
• (d) To support curriculum development
• (e) To expand and develop resource centres
• (f) To manage teacher training

To meet its aims, BPEP carried out five main activities across its two phases:

• (a) Curriculum and textbook development
• (b) Improving the physical infrastructure of primary schools
• (c) Expanding and managing resource centres
• (d) The non-formal education programme
• (e) The teacher training programme

The report of the National Education Commission, 2049, recommended a new curriculum for school level. Following that advice, work on the new curriculum began in 2049 BS, and BPEP helped keep this work going.

With the project's financial help, the Curriculum Development Centre introduced the new curriculum in class 1 in 2049 BS. It then extended it to higher classes step by step, and by 2056 BS it had succeeded in reaching class 10. So children who entered class 1 in 2049 BS studied from new textbooks written for the new curriculum.

Physical infrastructure means a school's buildings, classrooms, furniture, drinking water, toilets and playgrounds. Good teaching is hard in a room with a leaking roof and nowhere to sit. Poor infrastructure was the main thing holding back the quality of primary education, so BPEP invested heavily in it.

The project also gave schools drinking water, toilets, playgrounds and sports equipment, all of which helped raise the quality of education in them.

The idea of resource centres came from the Seti Project and the Primary Education Project. Following that idea, BPEP did notable work in expanding and developing them. By the end of BPEP-I, 669 resource centres had been set up. By the time of BPEP-II, there were 1050 across the country.

Each resource centre was given a building, and one resource person was appointed to each. The resource person visited schools and helped their teachers. This made the following work in schools more effective:

• Teaching and learning
• Teacher training
• School management
• Running examinations
• Inspecting and monitoring schools

Many people outside school could not read or write. Through its non-formal education programme, BPEP made a large contribution to literacy. Children who had been kept from going to school, and who were under four years of age, were brought into formal schooling through a programme known as the Education Home programme.

To help women in society become literate, these important programmes were run:

• An education programme for women
• An awareness programme
• Placing women teachers in primary schools
• Special education

The report of the National Education Commission, 2049, made training compulsory for primary teachers. To make this campaign succeed, BPEP ran basic teacher training courses of 150 hours, 180 hours and 330 hours, and trained thousands of teachers.

On top of this, 10-month training courses and subject-wise training packages were run through the Educational Human Resource Development Centre, which helped build teachers' ability. A trained teacher knows better how to help children learn, so this activity is tied directly to the aim of raising quality.