NN40, May 2008
Education for Sustainable Development? Or The Sustainability of Education Investment? A Special Issue
Whither Nepalese Education and Skill Development?
By Takayoshi Kusago, Osaka University & Kamal Phuyal, Purbanchal University, Nepal
Emails: tkusago@glocol.osaka-u.ac.jp and kamal.phuyal@gmail.comKeywords
Skills development, Nepal
Summary
This paper, which is the first progress report of an on-going research project on Nepalese education and skill development, looks at the Nepalese education and skill development sector by paying closer attention to its policy changes and prospects.
Conflict, regardless of whether it is internal or external, does affect adversely people?s livelihoods in any society in the world. Nepal is no exception with the decade long internal insurgency. However, in November 2006, a historic comprehensive peace accord was made between the Government of Nepal and the Communist party of Nepal-Maoists (CPN-M), which has provided Nepalese an opportunity to build peaceful and prosperous society. Transition is now underway with a new political landscape as the multi-party coalition government is being formed.
One of the major challenges for the new government to tackle is to revitalize the local economy and sustain Nepalese livelihoods. Improving peoples? livelihoods requires many efforts from at least three key human development areas: decent economic base, knowledge and skill development, and high quality in health. As the Human Development Index (HDI) has shown, Nepal is one of the poorest performers in human development in South Asia, which suggests that improvement of people?s well-being may not be an easy task. To tackle people?s anxiety over their livelihoods, sustainable economic development is needed and, for that stable economic growth, local-level skill development should receive a high priority of the government.
In order for Nepalese to secure long-lasting social and economic well-being, pro-poor economic growth policy is helpful. Pro-poor economic growth policies include human resource development in the key economic sectors of the country. The needs of human resource are constrained by the type of the economic sector and its state of development. Working from the initial assessment about the human resource base of the people, a careful design of skill development policy could be made. A post-conflict country such as Nepal needs to develop a viable private sector along with the reconstruction of the political stability through the set up of the new government structure. In particular, aiming at sustaining economic growth for the country?s stabilization and prosperity, skill formulation, for those who are in the rural area or in the informal economy, should be given higher priority. In the case of Nepal, key questions include: How does the government design a policy to enhance people?s productive work and incomes? How does the Nepalese government challenge educational development to find a way to grow its society and economy which makes people?s livelihood better in the long run?
This paper, which is the first progress report of an on-going research project on Nepalese education and skill development, looks at the Nepalese education and skill development sector by paying closer attention to its policy changes and prospects. It is our first step to look into the needs in human resources for economic development in Nepal and the effectiveness of the conventional educational system in Nepal before we would conduct a micro-case study in Nepal to look into these inquiries in detail. This descriptive paper reviews the Nepalese educational and skill development policy, and examines the current debate over the education and skill development reform in Nepal.
This study sheds some light on this policy perspective over its educational reform in Nepal. It pays closer attention to (1) school enrollment in the primary and the secondary school levels, and (2) skill development in technical schools and vocational trainings. Also, it pays attention to parents? perceptions over their expectations for schoolings in Nepal. The paper identifies key issues in educational development and skill formation in Nepal by linking school providers? aspects and school senders? aspects and discusses if the educational policy change can bring about positive growth orientation for Nepal.
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