1. Kul B. Basnet (Ph.D. student, KNUE)
Moon-Jong Kim (M.Ed. Student, KNUE)
Jinsoo Kim (Professor, KNUE)

2.  Socially and economically disadvantage
group perceive education as the most
promising means for their children’s up-
liftment.
 Primary education is the foundation of
learning, catalyst of social change and
empowerment.
 The right to education is a fundamental
human right.

3.  Before 1971, less than 50% school age
population had access to formal education.
 Privatization of education increase access
to rich and urban people.
 Many start late school (at nine or ten)
 Only 12 of the 100 admitted in class one
make it to the final examination of
secondary level.

4.  Girls are valued for household chores.
 Quality of education is low in remote
regions.
 Teachers do not fully understand the
concept of early childhood development

5. Projected Population (in thousands)
Year 2008 2009 2010 2015
Primary school entry age 5, 7,14 7,13 7,16 7,62
Primary school age 5-9, 3,558 3,553 3,557 3,713
Secondary school age 10-16, 4,837 4,891 4,928 4,959
Total 28,757 29,325 29,898 32,843

6.  5 plus age group -- 37% illiterate
 Primary-school age children not enroll in
school – 9%
 Number of Primary school (1-5) --30,924
(2008/9)
 Number of teachers – 143,574
 Student teacher ratio – 33.3
 Trained teachers – 67%
 Primary school enrolment – 4,782,313

7. Glance of Primary Education
Description Mountain Hill Kathmandu Terai Total
Gross enrollment rate 94.3 95.8 97.2 88.1 91.9
School student ratio 114.7 125.0 119.0 232.0 154.6
Teacher student ratio 30.7 30.1 16.7 43.8 33.3
Number of teacher 14,232 66,443 14,983 47,916 143,574
Source: Flash I Report 2008-2009 Department of Education

8.  60 students in grade 1, hardly 18 will be in
grade 5
 Remote areas of hills and Terai belt 3
teachers to manage 5 grades
 Poor results
 Over-politicization of teachers
 Inadequate number of trained teachers
 Dropout is high among the poor and
disadvantaged children.

9. Retention and Dropout in the year 2008-09 (%)
Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class
URD
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Upgrade 59.6 80.5 82.5 85.4 83.5 84.2 80.6 79.1 86.2 74.3
Repeat 28.3 12.9 10.1 9.7 7.3 9.2 8.1 7.7 8.7 7.1
Dropout 12.1 6.6 7.4 5.0 9.2 6.6 11.2 13.1 5.1 18.6
Source: Flash I Report 2008-2009 Department of Education

10.  Household poverty/economic hardship
 Dropout children are generally from
landless or small land holding farmers.
 Survival is first priority, schooling always
loses in trade-off between education and
work.

11. Educational Indicators by Poorest and Richest
Quintile
Education Indicators Poorest quintile Richest quintile
Nearest school more than 30
13.4% 4%
minutes away
Net Enrolment Rate at primary level 51% (Girls 42%) 87% (Girls 85%)
Having ever attended a school 22.7% (F-11.7%) 67.9% (F-56%)
Years of schooling 5.1 9.2
Adult literacy rate (15+ years) 23.1% (F-11.6%) 72.3% (F-59.1%)
Source: NLSS 2003/4

12. NER of Education Level by Poorest and Richest Quintile
Lower Higher
NER Primary Secondary Tertiary
Secondary Secondary
Poorest 51% (G-42) 7% (G-6) 2% (G-1) 1% (G-0) 0% (G-0)
Richest 87% (G-85) 56% (G-56) 35% (G-36) 13% (G-10) 10% (G-8)

13.  Teachers’ absenteeism
 Irregular operation of school
 Lack of child-friendly environment
 Poor physical facilities in school
 No text books on time
 Less motivated and committed teachers
and head teacher
 Children lack of interest in study
 Children’s association with bad company
 Ineffective school management committee

14.  Manage everything of primary schools and
make compulsion for all people.
 Give incentives to poor and disadvantages
children to cover all expenses.
 Apply teacher licensing system strictly and
trained all primary schools teachers in style of
teaching including student friendly teaching
methods.
 Develop policy to make flexible school calendar.

15.  Recruit more female teacher and use
mother tongue as medium of instruction.
 Develop school code of conduct and apply
it strictly.
 Establish a regular meeting system
between parents and teacher about
children performance.
 Develop a system of follow-up and
alternative education for dropout children

16.  Make provision of coaching class for weak
students.
 Encourage to use local teaching materials.
 Activate school management committee for
monitoring school activities, teacher
performance, raise interest of community
in school activities and children.
 Make a rule that the teachers cannot
involve themselves in direct politics.

17. It is always difficult to innovate and plan
change because it requires changing our
beliefs and practices and doing something
different.
A vision, education can make difference to
the lives of those who have access to it in
mind of all stakeholder of primary
education could solve the dropout problem
of Nepal.