Education in Nepal from 2007 BS to the Present

In 2007 BS the Rana rule came to an end and democracy was established in Nepal. Some schools and colleges had opened during the Rana period, but ordinary people could not easily get that education. Learning was a privilege of a small few. So when democracy arrived, the thing people hoped for most was the chance to be educated.

Schools began to open quickly all over the country to meet that hope. Once there were many schools, the government needed a body to manage and run them. So the Ministry of Education was set up in the same year, 2007 BS. From then on it became the main government body in charge of education in the country.

Schools kept opening, but there was no clear policy about where education should go. To organise the system already running and to prepare a policy for the future, the National Education Planning Commission was formed in 2010 BS. It had 46 members, and its coordinator was Sardar Rudraraj Pande.

The commission handed its report, called "Education in Nepal", to the Government of Nepal in 2011 BS. Its main recommendations were these:

• Classes 1 to 5 would be the primary level, and classes 6 to 10 would be secondary education.
• Primary education would be free.
• Clear rules would be made for running schools, managing teachers, and fixing teachers' qualifications and salaries.
• A proper method would be set for evaluating students.
• The same curriculum and the same textbooks would be used in schools across the whole country.

In 2018 BS the All Round National Education Committee was formed. "All round" means covering every side of education. The education system was improved further on the basis of what its report recommended. Along with the report, the committee handed the government a draft of an Education Act and its regulations. A draft is the first written version of a law, prepared before the law is passed.

The committee's report included these ideas:

• Uniformity in the education system, so that schooling followed one pattern across the country.
• Teaching through one language throughout the country.
• Greater emphasis on vocational and technical education.

By 2007 BS only two per cent of Nepal's people were literate. That means only 2 people in every 100 could read and write. There were just 21 secondary schools and 321 primary schools in the whole country. Twenty years later, by 2027 BS, these numbers had grown enormously.

In twenty years, primary schools grew almost 23 times over and secondary schools more than 50 times. Higher education changed a great deal in the same period.

At first, Trichandra College was the place that gave higher education. When it was founded, it ran under Calcutta University, and later under Patna University, so the degrees of Nepali students were awarded by universities in another country. In 2016 BS Tribhuvan University was established in Nepal. After that, Nepali students no longer had to go abroad for higher education, and other colleges opened in different parts of the country.

By 2027 BS education had grown a lot, but it had not yet been reshaped in a modern way. The biggest gap was that there was no law or rule to manage education at all. Without a law, the way a school was run or a teacher was appointed could differ from place to place.

To fill this gap, the Education Act and the Education Regulations were prepared in 2028 BS. Through them, the whole of education was changed on a wide scale. This change was called the National Education System Plan, 2028, also known as the New Education System Plan. It was first put into effect in 2028 BS.

This plan divided schooling into these levels:

• Primary level: classes 1 to 3
• Lower secondary level: classes 4 to 7
• Secondary level: classes 8 to 10
• Higher education: everything above class 10

If the whole country is to follow one curriculum, a permanent body is needed to write it. So the Curriculum Development Centre was set up on 5 Bhadra 2028 BS to prepare the curriculum and textbooks from the primary to the secondary level. The same centre still prepares the school curriculum today.

A good curriculum is not enough on its own; the teachers who teach it must be skilled too. In this period, training was made compulsory for teachers. From 2040 BS, minimum qualifications for teachers were also fixed:

• A person who had failed the SLC was barred from becoming a primary teacher.
• To teach at lower secondary level, a teacher needed to have passed the certificate level.
• To teach at secondary level, a teacher had to hold a bachelor's degree.

With so many schools, someone had to check that they were being run properly. So an office of the District Education Inspector was set up in every district to inspect and manage schools. Each level of school had its own inspector:

• A primary school inspector to monitor primary schools
• A lower secondary school inspector for lower secondary schools
• A secondary school inspector for secondary schools

In this way the District Education Inspector's office became responsible for managing and monitoring education across its whole district.

A law can be changed after it is passed when the need arises. Such a change to a law is called an amendment. In 2036 BS the third amendment to the Education Act 2028 was made. It rearranged the school levels once more: classes 1 to 5 became primary, classes 6 and 7 lower secondary, and classes 8 to 10 secondary. The curriculum and textbooks were revised to match.

In 2042 BS a plan was made to raise the living standard of Nepal's people to the Asian standard. Under this plan, a large number of basic primary schools were opened, and children in rural areas could now reach a school easily.

The joint people's movement of 2046 BS restored democracy in Nepal. To bring change to education after democracy returned, the National Education Commission was formed in 2047 BS. It submitted its report to the government in 2049 BS.

Following that report, the Education Act 2028 was amended and the structure of schooling changed:

• Classes 1 to 5: primary level
• Classes 6 to 8: lower secondary level
• Classes 9 and 10: secondary level
• Classes 11 and 12: higher secondary level

The curriculum and textbooks were revised to match, and by 2056 BS the new curriculum was in use up to class 10. Classes 1 to 10 were managed through the Ministry of Education, while a separate Higher Secondary Education Board was formed to manage classes 11 and 12 fully.

In 2054 BS the High Level National Education Commission was formed. Acting on its report, the seventh amendment to the Education Act 2028 was made in 2058 BS. It brought big changes for teachers and for higher education:

• A teaching licence became compulsory for anyone teaching in a school.
• The Teacher Service Commission was formed to select teachers, promote them and issue their licences.
• Tribhuvan University's certificate level was removed, and the policy became to run classes 11 and 12 in its place.
• Higher education was defined as the bachelor's, master's, M.Phil. and PhD levels.

Several universities were also founded during this period, so today Nepal has other universities besides Tribhuvan University.

The eighth amendment to the Education Act 2028 dissolved the Higher Secondary Education Board. School education from class 1 to class 12 now runs under the Ministry of Education. The amendment also changed the examinations a great deal:

• The class 8 examination is run by the local level.
• The National Examination Board was formed to run the secondary level examinations.
• The examination held at the end of class 10, which had been running since 1990 BS, was renamed the SEE (Secondary Education Examination).
• The SLC (School Leaving Certificate) examination is now held only at the end of class 12.
• The long-used system of giving marks was replaced by letter grading.

The management of education is now shared out level by level:

• At the centre: the Ministry of Education
• In each province: the Ministry of Social Development and the Education Development Directorate
• In each district: the Education Development and Coordination Unit
• In each rural municipality or municipality: its education office

After 2007 BS, the question of which class belongs to which level was answered differently several times. This is where students get most confused in exams, so the table puts every version side by side.

After the 2047 commission, classes 11 and 12 were called the higher secondary level and had their own board. After the eighth amendment, all of school from class 1 to class 12 came under the Ministry of Education.

Once democracy was established in 2007 BS, education in Nepal developed fast. The report of the National Education Planning Commission, 2011, did much to bring order to education. The report of the All Round National Education Committee of 2018 BS and the National Education System Plan of 2028 BS organised education in a new way. During the Panchayat period, a great many schools and colleges opened across the country.

After the political change of 2046 BS, the National Education Commission of 2047 and the High Level Education Commission of 2054 made many suggestions to make education modern, available to everyone and practical. The Education Act and Regulations were revised to carry out those recommendations, and education kept being reformed.