The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has brought a 10-year plan for school education reform. According to the plan, the investment will be Rs 953.43 billion within five years. The amount to be spent in the remaining five years will be decided later, said Dr. Tulasi Thapaliya, Joint Secretary, Planning Division, Ministry. According to him, the program has been named as School Education Sector Plan (SESP). Minister for Education, Science, and Technology Devendra Poudel has given in-principle approval for the operation of the scheme, which has been approved by the Ministry of Finance and the National Planning Commission.
The new scheme is being implemented at the school level as a continuation of the existing School Sector Development Plan (SSDP). The SSDP started in 2016 and ended in December 2021. Prior to the implementation of SSDP, the Ministry had launched the School Sector Improvement Plan (SSRP).
According to the ministry, the scheme will have an investment plan for the first five years. After five years, the additional budget will be formulated on the basis of inflation, market conditions, etc. Thapaliya informed that the school education sector plan will start from the next fiscal year 2079/80. He said that policies and programs will be decided on the basis of this plan in the budget formulation of the coming year.
Out of the total budget to be spent within five years of the plan, the ministry expects USD $7.5 million from development partners. When this amount is converted into Nepali currency, it will be around Rs. 880 million, but the partner body has said that it will accept the amount only after reviewing the past programs. In the past programs, development partners including World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Union, Global Partner of Education, Finland, Norway have provided assistance in past programs.
Among the programs conducted in the past, there were some problems in the implementation of SSDP. The local level has to regularly inform the federal ministry about the amount spent and the achievements made during the implementation of the plan, but this task was very cumbersome as the right to education has gone to the local level. The problem was created due to the lack of the Federal Education Act. Experts have said that there may be problems in the implementation of the new plan as there is no law and the responsibility of the school sector has been given to the local government.
Representatives of the partner bodies had been raising this issue in the evaluation meetings at different times regarding the previous program. According to the ministry, the implementation of the SSDP has been weakened due to the failure to clarify the issue of the common list of education in the constitution.
The local level also participated in the strategy formulation this time. Joint Secretary Thapaliya said, “We had discussions at the provincial level while planning. Accordingly, we have selected three municipalities from each province and included their experience. ”
