Nepal Critical Issues in Secondary Education and Options for Reform
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ReportNo. 12243-NEP Nepal Critical Issues in Secondary Education and Options for Reform Public Disclosure Authorized August 26, 1994 Country Department I, SouthAsia Region Population and Human ResourcesDivision Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Documentof the World Bank MICROGRAPHICS Public Disclosure Authorized Report No: 12243 NEP Type: SEC CALENDAR Nepal Year 2051 = 1994 FISCALYEAR July 16-July15 CURRENCYEOUIVALENTS Currency Unit NepaleseRupees US$1 NRs. 49.58 ABBREVIATIONSAND ACRONYMSUSED ADB - Asian Development Bank BPE - Basic and Primary Education CBS - Central Bureau of Statistics CDC - CurriculumDevelopment Center CL - Certificate Level CPI - Consumer Price Index Crore - 10,000,000,written as 1,00,00,000(see Lakh) CSHE - Councilfor Higher SecondaryEducation DEO - District EducationOfficer (Office) DTVE - Directorateof Technicaland VocationalEducation EFYP - Eighth Five-Year Plan FOE - Faculty of Education FY - Fiscal Year GDP - Gross Domestic Product HMG - His Majesty's Government HSE - Higher Secondary Education HSS - Higher Secondary School IDA - InternationalDevelopment Association JEMC - Janak EducationMaterials Center Lakh (lack, lac) - 100,000,written as 1,00,000 (see Crore) MHPP - Ministryof Housingand PhysicalPlanning MOEC - Ministryof Education,Culture, and SocialWelfare MOF - Ministry of Finance NEC - NationalEducation Commission NESP - New EducationSystem Plan of 1971 NGO - Non-governmentalOrganization NPC - National Planning Commission NRs. - Nepalese Rupees OCE - Officeof the Controllerof Examinations PBSO - Private and BoardingSchools Organization PEP - Primary Education Project RDE - RegionalDirector(ate) of Education SETI - Educationfor Rural DevelopmentProject SLC - School Leaving Certificate SMC - School Management Committee SAARC - SouthAsian Associationfor RegionalCooperation, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan,Sri Lanka Tarai - Plains (also Terai) TU - Tribhuvan University NEPAL CRITICALISSUES IN SECONDARYEDUCATION AND OTIONS FOR REFORM Table of Contents ExecutiveSummary ............. .................................... i I: INTRODUCTION ................... 1................... A. The Growth of SecondaryEducation .1 B. The Developmentof the SchoolSystem. 4 C. The Curent EducationPolicy Context. 5 D. The ChangingEconomic Context. 7 E. Educationfor the Year 2000 and Beyond. 9 II: THE QUALITYOF SECONDARYSCHOOLS .. 13 A. Qwlity of School Outcomes.13 B. Qualityof SchoolInuts 15 C. Componentsof a Quality ImprovementReform Package.26 D. Recommendations.32 HII: ACCESSTO EDUCATIONALOPPORTUNIIES .. 34 A. Access and Equity .34 B. Private SecondaryEducation .41 C. Provisionof Equitable EducationalOpporunities .50 D. Recommendations.52 IV: EXPENDITUREOPTONS AND PRIORITIES. 53 A. Trends in GovernmentExpenditures in Education .53 B. Financing of SecondaryEducation .55 C. Unit Costs .58 D. FinancingStrategies .59 E. Recommendations ................................... .70 TABLESIN TEX 1.1 Historical Evolutionof SecondaryEducation in Nepal, 1971-1991 1.2 EnrollmentGrowth Summary 1.3 Projections for Teachersand Schools in Lower Secondaryand SecondaryEducation 1.4 EconomicallyActive PopulationAged 10 and Above by EconomicSector, 1981-1991 1.5 Growth Rate of Total and SectoralValue Added 1.6 EducationalAttainment of EconomicallyActive PopulationAge 10+ 1.7 Social Rates of Return to Educationin Nepal 2.1 Schcol-LeavingCertificate Examination Results, 1992 2.2 Lower Secondaryand SecondaryCurriculum 2.3 SLC Appearanceand Pass Raies (1988/89-1991/92) 2.4 Lower SecondaryTeachers by Qualification,Training and Region, 1991 2.5 SecondaryTeachers, by Qualification,Training anARegion, 1991 3.1 Gross EnrollmentRatio by Region, 19909-91 3.2 EnrollmentDistribution by Region, 1990-91 3.3 Female ParticipationRatio by Region, 1990-91 3.4 Distributionof SecondarySchools (6-10) Teachersby Sex, Qualificationand Region, 1990-91 3.5 Eollment Ratios by EconomicStatus 3.6 SLC Resultsby Region, 1990 3.7 Student Enrollmentin Grades 6-10, 1989-91 3.8 Private SecondaryEducation Enrollment by Region and Zone, 1991 3.9 Sources of Revenue for Grades 6-10 in Private and Boarding Schools, 1991 3.10 Average SchoolFees in Private and BoardingSchools, 1991-92 3.11 Compaison of Fees, 1992 3.12 Average RecurrentExpendite Per Private and BoardingSchool, 1991 4.1 Nepal EducationSector BudgetsAllocations by Subsector (Developmentand Regular) 4.2 INepalEducation Sector Total Allocationsand Expenditur to Education 4.3 National Expenditureon SecondaryEducation, 1990-91 4.4 Per-StudentPublic Expenditureby Levels, 1988/89-1990/91 4.5 Tribbuvan Universityand Private Campuses Total and CertificateLevel Enrollment 4.6 CHSE OrganizationStrucure (Revised) 4.7 Estimatesof EducationExpenditures ANNEXES Annex 1 NEPAL - EnrollmentProjections Annex 2 SecondaryEducation Cohort Reconstruction(Grades 6-10) Annex 3 Regulationsof Private Schoolsin Nepal Annex 4 Unit Costs of SecondaryEducation in Nepal Annex 5 Free SecondaryEducation Policy: Projected Financial Requirents, FY1993-FY2002 Annex 6 Physical and FinancialProjections for the Phase-out/Phase-inPlan for CertificateLevel Studentsat Tribhuvan Universityto the Higher SecondaryEducation System This report is based on the findingsof a missionthat visited Nepal in October 1992. The mission was led by Ana M. Jeria (Economist)and consisted of Messrs./Mmes. Linda Dove (Senior Evaluation Officer), Shiva Raj Lohani (Economist,Consultant), Richard D. Noonan (Educator,Consultant), Mun Tsang (Economist,Consultant), and Kin Bing Wu (Educator, Consultant). Mr. Ratna B. Bajracharya (Consultant)prepared a contributionon private and boarding lower secondaryand secondary schools. Mr. DavidA. Ramseprepared a report on experienceswith secondaryvocational and technicaleducation. Peer reviewersare Messrs. Albert Agbonyitor(Senior Country Economist), Donald Holsinger (Education Specialist),William Rees (PrincipalEconomist) and Ms. HimeldaMartinez (Education, Division Chief). NEPAL CRMTICALISSUES IN SECONDARYEDUCATION AND OPTIONSFOR REFORM Executive Summary i. With low internal efficiencyand poor quality, low coverageand severe imderflnacing on the part of the Government,secondary education in Nepal has some of the most acute problems in the country's educationsector. While analyzingsome of these problems in the secondarysystem, this report focusses on a few of the most salientquestions of strategic importancefor Nepal, namely: How to improvethe quality of inputs and their utilizationin the secondaryeducation subsector so that a desired level of leaming is attained? How to improve internalefficiency? How to promote equity in the provision of educationalopportunities? and How to finance the current and growingdemands in secondary education? Bacgound ii. Nepal's formal pnmary and secondaryeducation system provides for five years of primary education(Grades 1-5 for students6 to 10 years old), three years of lower secondary education(Grades 6-8 for students 11 to 13 years old) and two years of secondaryeducation (Grades 9 and 10 for students 14 and 15 years old). Just over three million studentsare enrolled in primary education, representingabout 60% of the boys and 30% of the girls between the ages of 6 and 10. Despitea six-foldincrease in secondaryenrollments over the past 20 years, the current gross enrollmentratio is below 40%. Studentswho pass the SchoolLeaving Certificate (SLC) examination after Grade 10 are eligibleto enter the higher educationsystem. Virualalyall higher educationis providedby Tribhuvan Universityin numeous campusesdispersed throughout the country. In 1992, approximately150,000 students were enrolled at the university. iii. Dropoutand repetitionrates are high in primary education,particularly in Grade 1. Sixty five percent of the childrenenrolled in Grade 1 drop out by the end of Grade 5, comparedto a much lower 40% average dropout rate for Asia.' The lack of participationand attendanceis mainly due to the high opportunitycost of the child labor, especiallythe girls engagedin mindingtheir siblings. The quality of primary school facilitiesis poor, especiallyin rural areas; there is only a small minorityof trained teachers. iv. At the other end of the educationsystem, the universityabsorbs the few studentsthat pass the SLC examination. During the past years cost recovery has been nominal in the higher educationsubsector. More recently however,University authorities started to increasecharges and reduce subsidies(tuition fees were doubledin 1991 from NRs. 20 to NRs. 40 per month). Higher educationalso suffers from very low qualitymanifested in the obsoletecurricula for most courses, a centalized examinationssystem which reinforcesutilization of the old cumiula and lack of sufficient books and other instructionalinputs. u Tan, J.P. and Alain Mingat (1989),Bducadonal Develomnent in Asia: A CoQMarive StudyFPouai on Cost and Pmainag lssues (AppendixA: Idividual CountryProfiles), World Bank: WashingtonD.C. - ii - v. Against this background,secondary education has been called upon "to produce self- reliant citizens who cherish the dignityof labor, who have faith in the nation and democracy, who are wakeful to the need of maintainingthe balance of iature, and who have high regard for the moral, cultural and social values; and to instill in them the knowledgeand skills required for the higher secondarylevel".2 However, only about 40,000 studentsgraduated from secondaryschools in Nepal in 1992. For a country of almost 20 million people, 40,000 graduatesrepresent only 2% of the 11 to