The globe is now busy to talk on Millennium Development Goals that are to be achieved by 2015. The goals focus on various aspects of different eight problems that have been matter of headache to all the development seekers; the MDGs seemed to be quite measurable at the time of commencement however the new global challenges like Global Warming and existing issues like Poverty, Education, Terrorism are making the development seekers to think twice on the action commenced.
There is almost consent of all in a point that Education is the prime factor to develop world into a considerable state. The goals like environmental sustainability, eradication of poverty, etc have deep interrelation with the goal Education For All (EFA). The literacy level or percentage is almost a clear indicator of development of any nation. In the same context Nepal has significantly improved on number of literate population in past few decades; the population who are able to read and write. The joint effort of government and related agencies with the significant contribution of all the citizens of Nepal has worked for the current literacy situation. The literacy rate was around five percent in around 1950s had increased to current rate of around fifty five percent by April 2010. This is a remarkable increment however the situation is not satisfactory.
Nepal is a signatory of Dakar Framework of Action and committed to Education for All by 2015. The Interim Constitution of Nepal- 2006 has made basic education as a fundamental right of people. Each community as stated in law deserves the right to get basic education in their own mother tongue. Three Years Interim Plan has emphasized social inclusion and education to all accessing non-formal and formal modalities. The government of Nepal has implemented different educational programs to educate its people. Some of them are formal, informal and non-formal. In recent years government has developed and implemented open school learning concepts as well. The increasing investment in Education is going well, new faculties have been introduced, new learning center have been built up, and every year government runs admission campaign in public schools. Despite these efforts on policy and strategy the implementation part has always been a big problem for the government.
The Dakar Framework of Action has set six major goals and the second is "Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult and those ethnic minorities, have access and to complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality". Similarly Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have also focused on Education for All by 2015. According to UNESCO Institute for Statistics, an estimated 46 million children are out of school in the Asia-Pacific Region, 32 million of them are in South and West Asia. The report also reveals that only half of the children who enter primary schools will reach grade five, Nepal closely follow behind more than 35 percent of children dropping out before the end of primary circle. The flash report 2008 shows that the Net Enrollment Ratio (NER) of primary level is 91.9%. It is obvious that there are 8.1% of schools going age children are still out of school and the significant numbers of children are either repeating the class or dropping out from the school. This situation is really a big challenge for the nation to achieve the EFA Goals by 2015.
Indeed the environment in public schools in Nepal has not been children friendly yet. Schools are not just schools in Nepal but much more than that. Often schools are being used as place for political demonstration. School campus is not only place for students to play but also has been utilized as militant training yard in the past and the trend continue till date. Lack of infrastructure in public schools, lack of qualified human resources, impractical curriculum, political nomination of teachers and again the politics that has touched every nook of school administration and functioning has hindered the pace of goal to be achieved. The political instability is the lubber that has been following the nation closely since decades and at its peak after post-conflict transition period. Collectively these situations had resulted to exile more than 13 percent of school going age children out of school and very high school dropout rate.
The goal is yet can be achieved after the proper study of education context and act to the following. The government need and all related agencies and stakeholders need to entail themselves in the proper study of the environment and constrains before launching any initiatives. There is a need to think not just of enrolling students at the starting of new academic year but making them regular at school. The questions like "Who is out-of –school children?"," How many are they?"," How do we recognize and carter them?"," How do we identify these groups?" should be taken into consideration while developing any programs. The level of intervention should be determined after the proper calculation of all factors. The trend of developing programs for village of Far-Western Region from capital city should be replaced with proper systems. Special consideration should be taken to build children friendly environment in schools or else the government investment about 15 percent of its total budget and millions of dollars will go in vain.
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