Government Recognized Alternative Education in this academic session:
The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology has stated that it will recognize alternative education in this academic session. Ministry spokesperson Deepak Sharma said that the ministry has recognized online and virtual classes for this academic session.
The government has recognized alternative education after the school level education has been suspended for about six months. A meeting of the National Curriculum Development and Evaluation Council chaired by Minister for Education, Science, and Technology Giriraj Mani Pokhrel has decided to recognize alternative classes in the current academic session.
The meeting held at the Ministry had discussed the Student Facilitation Guideline-2077 through Alternative System. The issue of the directive passed by the Council of Ministers was discussed.
The discussion started on the initiative of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli after he instructed Minister Pokharel to take an immediate decision so as not to waste the student's academic session. Minister Pokharel had a discussion with the Minister of Social Development of the same province on Monday.
Earlier, he had discussed with the officials of the Curriculum Development Center and the Ministry about starting the academic session through alternative means. With the decision of the council meeting, reading through an alternative medium has been recognized in the current academic session.
The guideline states that students who have access to radio, FM radio, and mobile radio without access to any kind of technology, have access to television, have computers but no online connectivity, and have access to internet and information communication technology will be categorized accordingly.
Preparations have been made to teach through distance and open education and alternative education system in this academic session as the corona epidemic has also affected the education system.
Even before the directive was passed, all the schools under PABSON and NPABSON had conducted online classes. After the guideline came in June, all the schools had started teaching through alternative means.
According to the enrollment records established in the academic session 2076 BS, the enrollment records of the students, parents' names, addresses, and the status of access to resources have also been prepared.
If the ministry recognizes alternative education, all community schools will have to start classes online, on FM and Radio Nepal, or on local television. It has been decided to recognize this method even without physical presence.
The spokesperson of the Ministry Deepak Sharma informed the study will be done through alternative medium in this academic session. He said that arrangements have been made to educate the school going children through distance and open education and alternative education system till the school is in a comfortable condition.
As per the guidelines, textbooks should be made available to all students before conducting classes through an alternative medium, the appropriate type of printed material should be prepared and used, groups of 8 to 10 students should be accommodated locally and physical distance should be maintained. Will have to make arrangements.
On the other hand, PABSON and NPABSON have reiterated their stance that they should make arrangements to charge monthly fees regardless of the method of conducting the study. Chairman of PABSON Tikaram Puri and Chairman of NPABSON Rituraj Sapkota said that the problem would not be solved unless arrangements were made to charge fees for teaching through alternative means.
Stating that parents should not pay fees and spend millions of rupees to run online classes, the two chairpersons said, "Once the government recognizes the online medium, there will be problems in conducting classes until the government makes arrangements to charge monthly fees."
The ministry had instructed the local government not to charge fees for online classes by violating its jurisdiction. As a result, parents have not even paid their monthly fees after enrolling their children in online classes.
