Changing Landscape of Science and Technology Education in Nepal Key Note Lecture on the 2Nd NRN Global Knowledge Convention "Intersection in Natural Sciences"
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Changing Landscape of Science and Technology Education in Nepal Key Note Lecture on the 2nd NRN Global Knowledge Convention "Intersection in Natural Sciences" Dr. Giridhari Sharma Paudel Vice-chairman Policy and Planning Commission Gandaki Province 11 October 2020 24 Ashouj 2077 Dhulikhel Kavre, Nepal Content of this presentation • State of art: science and technology education in Nepal • Nepal unification feudal period before, 1846 AD • Oligarchy Rana Period, between 1947-1950 AD • Transitional period- between Rana and Unitary Panchyat regime, between 1951-1960 AD • Unitary Panchyat Period, between 1961-1989 AD • Multiparty democracy period, between 1990-2014 AD • Federal democratic republication period, 2015 onwards • Change in students enrollment in science and technology subjects between 2003/004 and 2018/2019 in Nepalese universities • Share of science students in secondary school enrollment • Problem in science and technology education in Nepal • Way forward to promote science and technology teaching and research in Nepal Science and technology education during Nepal unification feudal period Period Year Main thrust of education Scope of science and technology education 1. Nepal Before • Main thrust of education was to • No formal education Unification 1846 AD produce priests to assist in system Feudal customary religious practice of • There was no scope Period people and skilled military for science and personnel for unification of Nepal technology education • The priests in temple, Gumba and • Though teaching and mosque were educating people learning of astrology • Local priests were also educating was in practice in young people in the morning and informal setting evening at their home Science and technology education during oligarchy Rana period Period Year Main thrust of education Scope of science and technology education 2. Oligarchy 1846- • Main thrust of education system was to • Formal education system was Rana 1950 educate elite Rana family members to rule the opened for elite Rana family Period AD country • Durbar High School was first • Jang Bahadur Rana, decided to give his established in 1853 children an English education • Trichandra College was • In 1854 AD he called an English tutor to established in 1918 educate his children in palace and this act • Padmodaya High School was established supremacy of English education established in 1947 over traditional Sanskrit-based education • General science of Indian • The Ranas kept education the exclusive School Curriculum was taught prerogative of the ruling elite, the rest of the in Rana Centric school population remained largely illiterate • British retired army personnel • Rana feared with education and alienated after world war II opened people schools in community • In 1950 literacy rate was just 5 percent Science and technology education during transitional period Period Year Main thrust of education Scope of science and technology education 3. • Main thrust of education • Efforts were made to establish an Transitional 1950- system was to literate education system period 1960 people and produce • The National Education Planning between AD administrators and Commission was founded in 1954 Oligarchy technicians for • Many schools were opened in rural Rana development Regime and urban set up • Unitary Formal education system • Tribhuvan University (T.U) was Panchyat was opened to general established 1959 for higher education System public • This period opened new avenues for • Literacy rate grew gradually science and technology education in from 5 percent in 1950 to 9 Nepal percent in 1960 (Male 16.3 and female 1.8 percent) Science and technology education during unitary Panchyat period Period Year Main thrust of education Scope of science and technology education 4. Unitary 1961- • Main thrust of education was • All Round National Education Committee was Political 1989 to literate people, produce formed in 1961 System AD administrators and technicians • Formal education system was expanded (Locally for development and • Constituent campus of Tribhuvan University called politicians to support and were expanded with basic science Panchayat) advocate the unitary political • Nepal Sanskrit University was established in Period system. 1986 • Literacy rate increased to 40 • National Education Advisory Board was formed percent (54% male and 25% in 1968 female ) • New Education System was introduced in 1971 • Total school enrollment was • In 1975 primary education was made free, and approximately 52 percent of the government began to provide school school-age children facilities, teachers, and educational materials (approximately 70 percent of • As of 1987, number of secondary school school-age boys, 30 percent of increased to 1,501 and basic science was taught school-age girls) in 1984. in these schools Science and technology education during unitary Panchyat period Period Year Main thrust of education Scope of science and technology education 4. Unitary 1961- • Education remained largely • The number of constituent and affiliated Political 1989 urban-biased college increased from 8 to 132 under System AD • The majority of education Tribhuvan University in 1987 (Locally institutions, particularly called better quality institutions, • Number of students enrolled in Panchayat) were found in urban areas university reached 83,000 in 1987 of Period • In rural areas where schools which 40 % were in humanities, 31% in were set up, the quality of commerce, 11% in science and instruction was inferior, technology, 6% in education and 12% in facilities were very poor, and other subjects. educational materials were either difficult to find or virtually unavailable Science and technology education during multiparty democracy period Period Year Main thrust of education Scope of science and technology education Multiparty 1990 - • Main thrust of education • Formal education system was opened for Democracy 2014 system was to literate people private sector Period AD and produce skilled human • Many new schools and universities were resources able to compete in opened national and international • Kathmandu University was established in 1990 market. • Purbanchal and Pokhara University in 1995 • Overwhelming majority of and 1996 respectively campus and college were • Mid-western University and Far Western teaching general subjects and University in 2009 graduates at large were not able • Agriculture and Forestry University in 2010 to compete in the international • Lumbini Bauddha University in 2014 market unless they were trained • Many 10+2 higher secondary schools were further. opened for science education and private • Literacy rate reached 66 percent college for science and technology education (72% male and 44% female) Science and technology education during federal republican period Period Year Main thrust of Scope of science and technology education education Federal 2015 • Main thrust of • Formal education system is a mix of public Democratic and education is to and private sector Republicati onwards produce competent • New university are opened like Open on Period graduates for University in 2016, Rajshree University in prosperity of the 2017, Gandaki University and Yogmaya country University in 2019 • A transformative shift • Madan Bhandari Technical University and is expected from other provincial university are in pipeline general education to • Teaching science and technology is in high technical education priority • Graduate will have • A balance between technical education and entrepreneur and general education is expected production oriented • General college are expected to covert into mindset technical subjects Change in number of students enrollment in major subjects in universities of Nepal between 2003/2004-2018/2019 250000 226282 200000 150000 100000 83210 71256 64798 53024 50000 37642 1993 33525 28795 7039 13099 17318 18942 6734 570 2271 441 898 0 Engineering Agriculture Medicine Foresty Science and Law Management Education Humanities & and Animal Techonology Social Science Science 2003/2004 2018/2019 Total students 2003=135,892 Total students 2018=538,333 Change in % share of students enrollment in major subjects in the universities of Nepal between 2003/2004-2018/2019 45.0 42.0 40.9 40.0 35.0 30.0 25.9 25.0 20.0 14.615.5 15.0 12.0 13.2 10.1 10.0 7.0 5.2 5.3 5.0 3.2 1.8 0.4 1.3 0.3 0.4 0.7 0.0 Engineering Agriculture Medicine Foresty Science and Law Management Education Humanities & and Animal Techonology Social Science Science 2003/2004 2018/2019 Change in % share of students enrollment in technical and non-technical subjects in university education system of Nepal between 2003/2004-2018/2019 90 83 80 74 70 60 50 40 30 26 20 17 12 10 10 0 Science and Technology Technical Subjects Humanities, Commerce and Education 2003/004 2018/2019 % share of students enrolled in grade 11 and 12 by subjects in 2018 in Nepal 0.6 15 7.4 Total students=631,536 38.8 38.1 Technical education Humanities Education Management Science Students dropout rate from grade 11 to 12 in 2018 in Nepal 35.0 29.9 30.0 25.0 20.0 15.0 10.8 9.9 10.2 10.0 8.3 5.0 2.4 0.0 Technical education Humanities Education Management Science Total Problem in Science and Technology Teaching in Nepal • Poor infrastructures like class room, laboratory, library, IT connectivity etc. • Inadequate number of trained teacher • Inadequate number of science lab • Poorly equipped labs (Botany, Zoology, Biology, Chemistry, Physic, Micro- biology, Molecular biology, Bio-informatics are taught in Nepal). These subjects