Secondary Education

After basic education, a student in Nepal moves up into the higher part of school. The four years from Grade 9 to Grade 12 make up this stage, and the stage has a name of its own.

Not every secondary student walks the same path. Secondary education is classified into three types, and each type has its own set of subjects:

• General education: the stream built around Nepali, English, Mathematics, Science and Technology and Social Studies, with optional subjects added.
• Technical and vocational education: the stream that trains students in a trade, where half the time of the trade subjects goes to practical and workplace practice.
• Traditional education: the stream that carries Nepal's older systems of learning, such as Gurukuls, Sanskrit schools, Gonpas and Madrasas.

Traditional systems of learning have not been left outside secondary education. They have been brought inside it. Gurukul, Gonpa Vihar, Madrasa and Mundhum are among the traditional education systems included. A student in a Gurukul or a Madrasa is therefore a secondary student like any other, and their studies follow a structure set by the national curriculum.

A single-track curriculum structure has been put into practice at the secondary level. For each stream, the curriculum fixes which subjects are compulsory, how many optional subjects a student takes, and how much time every subject receives. The sections below go through these structures one at a time, first for Grades 9 and 10 and then for Grades 11 and 12.

In a curriculum structure, every subject carries two numbers. Once you can read these two numbers, every table in this topic becomes easy to follow.

The two numbers always move together. A subject with 5 credit hours has 160 annual working hours, one with 4 has 128, and one with 3 has 96. Divide any pair and the answer is the same: \( 160 \div 5 = 32 \), \( 128 \div 4 = 32 \) and \( 96 \div 3 = 32 \). So each credit hour stands for 32 working hours in a year, and the annual hours of any subject can be found from its credit hours. Take a subject of 4 credit hours as an example.

Step 1: Writing the rule, where \( C \) is the credit hours and \( W \) is the annual working hours:

\[ W = C \times 32 \]

Step 2: Putting in \( C = 4 \) for Social Studies in Grades 9 and 10:

\[ W = 4 \times 32 \]

Step 3: Multiplying the two numbers:

\[ W = 128 \]

The answer, 128 hours, is exactly the time Social Studies receives in Grades 9 and 10 of general education.

In Grades 9 and 10 of general education, a student studies seven subjects in each grade. Five are compulsory: Nepali, English, Mathematics, Science and Technology, and Social Studies. The other two are optional subjects, called Optional I and Optional II, which the student chooses.

The four subjects of language, number and science get 5 credit hours each, the largest share. Social Studies and the two optional subjects get 4 each. Together the compulsory subjects take 24 of the 32 credit hours, and the optional subjects take the other 8.

The structure changes in Grades 11 and 12. English and Nepali are compulsory in both grades. Social Studies is compulsory only in Grade 11, and Life Skills Education is compulsory only in Grade 12. On top of these, a student takes three optional subjects in each of Grade 11 and Grade 12.

Because two grades are shown side by side, each cell below gives the credit hours first and the annual working hours in brackets. A cell reading 'none' means the subject is not taught in that grade.

Adding the main subjects of Grade 11 gives \( 3 + 4 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 27 \) credit hours. A student who also takes the additional optional subject carries \( 27 + 5 = 32 \). Grade 12 gives the same totals, because the 5 credit hours held by Social Studies in Grade 11 are held by Life Skills Education in Grade 12.

Information technology also has a place. In Grades 11 and 12, content on information technology equal to at least one credit hour is included within Social Studies and Life Skills Education. So a general stream student meets information technology even without choosing it as an optional subject.

In the technical and vocational stream the student still studies Nepali, English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies, but most of these get less time than in general education. The time saved goes to four trade subjects, which belong to the trade the student has chosen.

Count the trade subjects: four subjects of 4 credit hours each make 16 credit hours, exactly half of 32. In these two grades, half of the student's study time belongs to the trade.

How the trade subjects are taught is also fixed. When learning activities for these subjects are run, 50 percent of the working hours must be theory, and the other 50 percent must be based on practical work, hands-on application and practice at a workplace.

In Grades 11 and 12 this stream adds academic subjects beside the trade subjects. A student studies English, Nepali or Social Studies, three academic subjects and four trade subjects.

The row 'Nepali / Social Studies' works by grade. Nepali is studied in Grade 11 and Social Studies in Grade 12, each with 3 credit hours.

This stream also includes practical practice based at a workplace. Across Grades 9 to 12 there is a further 37.5 credit hours of it, equal to 1200 working hours. The rule from earlier confirms this.

Step 1: Putting 37.5 credit hours into the rule:

\[ W = 37.5 \times 32 \]

Step 2: Multiplying the two numbers:

\[ W = 1200 \]

Just as in Grades 9 and 10, the trade subjects of Grades 11 and 12 must be taught with 50 percent of the working hours on theory and 50 percent on practical work, hands-on application and workplace practice.

This stream serves Sanskrit schools, Veda schools and Gurukuls. It keeps the main school subjects but gives Sanskrit and the Vedas a special place. Some rows offer two or three subjects separated by a slash (/), and the student takes one of them. The structure for Grades 9 and 10 is:

Choosing subjects in this stream follows these rules:

• Veda: a student who takes Veda must choose one of the four Vedas: Shukla Yajurveda, Samaveda, Rigveda or Atharvaveda.
• Optional I: one subject must be chosen from rituals, predictive astrology, yoga education, Vastu Shastra, Ayurveda, naturopathy and optional mathematics.
• Optional II: one subject must be chosen from the classical subjects of Sanskrit.
• The limit: a student who takes Veda in place of Science and Technology may not take Veda again in Optional II.

Notice that Social Studies does not appear in this stream's structure for Grades 9 and 10. Instead, Sanskrit Language and Grammar is there, with 4 credit hours.

In Grades 11 and 12 this stream follows the general pattern closely, but Sanskrit Language and Grammar keeps its place in both grades with 5 credit hours. Each cell gives the credit hours first and the annual working hours in brackets.

Gonpas teach in the Buddhist tradition and Madrasas in the Islamic tradition. In Grades 9 and 10 their subjects and credit hours are the same as in general education:

The difference lies in how subjects are taught and what can be chosen. Social Studies may be adapted to include content from the related traditional education, and it may be taught in the related language itself. The range of optional subjects is also wider:

• Gonpa education: besides the optional subjects of general education, the Bhot language and Buddhist education can be studied as optional subjects.
• Madrasa education: besides the optional subjects of general education, Arabic language, literature and grammar, Urdu language, literature and grammar, and Islamic religious studies (Diniyat) can be studied.

In the table for Grades 11 and 12, where two bracketed groups are separated by a slash, the Gonpa choice comes first and the Madrasa choice after it. For example, Optional I is Buddhist philosophy in a Gonpa and the Quran in a Madrasa.

Putting the four streams together shows clearly what they share and where they part ways.