Educationduringcovid 19 pandemic

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EDUCATION DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A QUALITATIVE STUDY AMONG
SECONDARY LEVEL STUDENTS OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN KATHMANDU
VALLEY
Article · December 2020
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Brinda Bhattacharya
St. Xavier’s College
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Angel Gurung
St. Xavier's college, Nepal
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Alka Shrestha
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Prekchhya Shrestha
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EDUCATION DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC:
A QUALITATIVE STUDY AMONG SECONDARY LEVEL STUDENTS OF PUBLIC
SCHOOLS IN KATHMANDU VALLEY
Seminar Paper
By:
Brinda Bhattacharya
Angel Gurung
Alka Shrestha
Prekchhya Shrestha
Date: December 28, 2020

Table of Contents
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….... 1
Background……………………………………………………………………………….. 1
Objective………………………………………………………………………………….. 4
Rationale of the study…………………………………………………………………….. 5
Method………………………………………………………………………………………... 6
Literature Review…………………………………………………………………………….. 6
The impact that COVID 19 has had on a global scale……………………………………. 7
Income divides exposed through the gap between public and private institutions due to
technological barriers……………………………………………………………………... 8
Increase in the drop out rate………………………………………………………………. 9
Efforts of Nepal Government to manage the impact of COVID-19 on education……….10
Way forward to assist students with no access to distant learning……………………….11
Impact on Assessment and acknowledging the shift towards delivering education in
emergency situations……………………………………………………………………..13
Empirical Research Findings : Data Analysis………………………………………………..14
Challenges of online education dissemination…………………………………………...14
Alternative sources of education and availability of medium…………………………....17
Disturbances caused by study from home………………………………………………..18
Ineffective online assessments…………………………………………………………... 20
Way forward to improve the situation…………………………………………………....22
Policy Review……………………………………………………………………………….. 23
National Education Policy, 2076 (2019)............................................................................23
Act Relating to Compulsory and Free Education, 2075 (2018).........................................23
COVID - 19 Education Cluster Contingency Plan, 2020………………………………...24

National ICT Policy, 2072 (2015)......................................................................................25
School Sector Development Plan (SSDP) 2016- 2023………………………………….. 26
Critical Reflection………………………………………………………………………….... 27
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………... 28
Recommendation……………………………………………………………………………. 29
References……………………………………………………………………………………30
Annex………………………………………………………………………………………... 35

1
Introduction
Background
Our group shares a mutual interest in the area of education and social work. As
individuals, we have once in our field works or camps worked in the specified area as well.
The selection of this particular topic was triggered by the personal experience of one of our
team members. She was a trainee at Partnership in Education (PiE) an outreach program of
the college that taught students of classes 9 and 10 in the year 2019. One of her students
recently passed the school-leaving examination with grades that would support his future
studies very well. But he was not happy at all. The only concern that he had was that he
doesn’t have a college in his village to study and due to the pandemic, he won’t be able to
return to the valley to study. It was not only him, but another student taught by her also
expressed that she had been promoted to class 9 but her parents couldn't pay the fees as they
were laborers and they had no income. The school which she studied didn’t let her take
online classes as she couldn’t pay her fees. Some other students can’t attend online classes
because they do not have phones or the internet. All of the students discussed above belong to
public schools and their challenges instigated us to do our thesis paper on the impact
secondary-level public school students are having on their education due to the pandemic.
Mahatma Gandhi expresses that "By education, I mean an all-round drawing out of
the best in the Child and man-body, mind and spirit". The Rigved claims that education is
something that makes a man self-reliant and selfless. According to UNESCO education is a
human right for all throughout life and access to it has to be matched by quality. In the
Sustainable Development Goals, Goal 4 (SDG 4), is that of education. It aims to “ensure
inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
The SDG 4 is made up of 10 targets which focuses on free, equitable and quality primary and
secondary education, access to quality early education/ care and pre-primary education, equal

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access without gender disparity in technical and vocational education, ensuring sustainability
by increasing employment opportunities, removing disparities by exhaustive factors such as
gender, race, economic condition, etc, ensure literacy and in conclusion put major emphasis
on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The SDG also aims to upgrade education
facilities that are child, disability friendly and gender sensitive. Nepal as a nation thriving to
achieve the SDGs had made sure to include goal-related acts and policies when it comes to
education.
Nepal has two types of schools functioning namely public and private schools which
are established in line with the prevailing law. A school that operates with the investment or
grant of the Government of Nepal (GoN), Provincial Government or Local Government is
known as a public school and it also includes schools operating as community schools. (Act
Relating to Compulsory and Free Education, 2075 (2018)). The same Act defines secondary
education as that from grade 9 to 12. Shedding light on the condition of Nepal with regards to
education before the pandemic we take the report published by UNICEF (2018), which
marked that 70,000 children aged 5-12 years are still out of school. Whereas UNESCO
(2019), reported 103,384 children were out of school. The World Bank data shows only
61.873% enrollment in secondary level according to 2019. 12% of the students only belong
from the lowest wealth quintile compared to 65% of those from the high wealth quintile and
very few schools meet child-friendly school standards. Now, the pandemic has left a huge
question in the development of education.
Talking about the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), it first appeared in Wuhan
city of China at the end of last year. Rapid worldwide spreading of COVID - 19 prompted the
World Health Organization (WHO) to declare it as a "pandemic" on 11 March 2020 (WHO
Timeline - COVID- 19, 2020, Pelmin, 2020). The Government of Nepal made a slow start in
its response to the spread of the virus despite its rapid spread in many countries including its

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neighboring countries. As a consequence of the lockdowns, schools and universities in Nepal
have been temporarily closed for nearly 6 months now. The World Bank reports that on
March 19 the government of Nepal officially closed down all the educational institutions due
to Covid 19. It also estimates that since that date 8.2 million Nepali children are away from
their classrooms putting their education at risk.
As of the second week of May 2020, UNESCO (2020), estimates that nearly nine
million (8,796,624) students in Nepal are affected due to school/university closures in
response to the pandemic. Out of this number, 958, 127 (11%) are in pre-primary, 2,466,570
(28%) are in primary, 3,463,763 (39%) are in secondary and 404,718 (5%) are in tertiary
education. Because of the compulsory closure of schools and universities for a considerable
period of time, the education system has changed dramatically, with the distinctive rise of e-
learning whereby teaching and learning are undertaken remotely and on digital platforms.
However, there are many challenges around equitable access to e-learning as the situation of
the spread and impacts of the control measures and restrictions evolve, there is a lack of
adequate research in order to determine the actual impact of closures on education. 86% of
children from low human development countries are not receiving education due to the
pandemic, compared to “only” 20% of children in developed countries as per UNDP (n.d.).
Most of the governments around the world have initiated a common goal to curb the spread
of this highly contagious disease by imposing lockdown, social/physical distancing, avoiding
face-to-face teaching-learning, and restrictions on immigration. Around 600 million school-
going learners are affected across the world due to the closing down of educational
institutions (Goyal, 2020).
The difficult part of the transition from physical interaction to digital mediums of
education is that not all schools are equally able to provide distance learning. Many Nepali
families have no access to a stable internet and lack electronic devices for their children to

4
carry out school work. As a result, it is near to impossible to conduct distance learning in a
full-fledged manner because institutions shouldn’t be opting to leave the have-nots behind
and only cater to the haves of society. The Child and Family Tracker Survey, UNICEF
(August, 2020 Nepal), found that more than two-thirds of the school children are unable to
access remote learning. The same report presents that 24% of lower secondary children and
18% of upper secondary children have no access to remote learning.
What follows is the enumeration of the impacts of the pandemic on Nepalese
education. Not only poverty but increased unemployment is also a reason for the effect on
learning of children belonging to lower socio-economic backgrounds. A report by the
International Cocoa initiative clearly shows a link between family income, access to school
and child labour. The government has tried to promote education through radios, televisions
and other forms of distance learning but how much has it been effective? Can every child
have access to it and what about the ones who are not financially equipped to gain access?
The secondary level students are more vulnerable to it because their further education has a
high probability to be delayed and the ones in rural areas with no higher secondary (grade 11
and 12) education might have to drop out as well because they cannot travel to the city to
study due to the pandemic. There is also a huge difference in distance learning being
provided by private institutions and the public ones. Hence, this thesis paper will try and
narrow down the impact that the pandemic has had on the education of the secondary level
students of public schools within the Kathmandu Valley.
Objective
i. To study the impact COVID 19 has had on the education of secondary level
students.

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Rationale of the study
Education is one of the many basic human rights affected by Covid-19. Especially in
a country like Nepal where education inequity is vastly prevalent, the spread of the Covid-19
pandemic has only worsened the situation. Similar to the global situation, Covid-19 has
forced schools to shut down all throughout the country. While different schools have
responded to this situation with their own coping strategies, most have adopted distant
learning through the use of ICT. However, learning through technology or online education
has resulted in a gap in access to education. As most of the public school students are
deprived of digital and online access meanwhile only privileged students of the private school
are acquiring the knowledge. Thus, these differences majorly affecting the public school
students could further raise the existing disparity in learning among the private and public
schools (Ghimire, 2020).
Although this pandemic situation might end after a certain period of time, it will
surely leave a gap in educational attainment of the students who are deprived of the necessary
access. Studies during this pandemic have proclaimed severe impacts on the participation and
enrollment of female students after the pandemic is relatively going to be low due to social
and economic factors (Sharma, 2020). Similarly, the educational burden on the higher
secondary level of students is going to be more due to the addition of extra subjects in their
curriculum. The adaptation of a new way of learning and teaching has somewhere broken the
pattern of conventional learning- teaching method and eventually, the use of ICT may bring a
different course of change within the educational system of Nepal. Nevertheless, it is
important to understand the gaps created by Covid-19 on education so as to come up with
possible solutions to apply during and after the pandemic. This study on the impact of
Covid-19 on education will provide a detailed understanding of the issues faced by the
students which will further help in developing effective strategies to mitigate the problems.

6
Method
The seminar paper in nature is qualitative and the whole intention of the qualitative
investigation was to realize the effects that the pandemic has had on the education of
children. The area of study for the seminar paper was Kathmandu valley. The target
population was secondary level (grades 9 - 12) public school students who were taken into
focus.
A purposive sampling method was used to generate the sample population inclusive
of 8 participants. The methodologies used for data collection were open-ended questionnaires
and semi-structured interviews to gather information regarding how COVID had affected
their education. The purposive sampling was mainly used due to the constraint put on the
researchers by the COVID 19 where they were unable to use any other method of sampling.
Out of the 8 participants, 3 were males and others were females. Out of them, 4 participants
belonged to grade 9, 2 from grade 11 and 1 from grade 10 and grade 12 each.
After the sample was identified researchers visited the homes of some of the
interviewees as per their availability and when limitations of visit prevailed interview was
taken through online mediums: zoom meetings and google meet as per the convenience of the
participants. The participants actively participated in the interview putting forward their own
views and opinions. For data collection and thematic analysis active listening, observation,
note-taking and recording were used as the tools. All the researchers took permission from
the participants before recording their interviews keeping in mind their privacy and
confidentiality.
Literature Review
The pandemic has affected the children in the realm of education not only globally but
nationally in all the countries as well. It has brought an onset of universal challenges along
with nation specific problems affecting the children. In Nepal specifically, there has been an

7
economic divide created regarding the accessibility of education, dropout rate is expected to
increase and unseen challenges for teachers have been anticipated. The government has come
out with plans and is trying to intervene in the best way possible but there is still a long way
to go for the condition of education to become emergency situation friendly for the children.
The secondary level children are more vulnerable to these consequences because they
will have a huge question on what to do next, how to continue their studies and they are at a
huge risk to miss a year or two of their education as the government has still not given any
clarity on how dependable it will be on courses taken by televisions, radios and other means
of ICT to actually promote the students to higher grades. The below mentioned themes
discuss the scenario of the impact COVID has had on education globally, the impact it has
created on secondary level students of Nepal and what can be the way forward for the
betterment of the children.
The impact that COVID 19 has had on a global scale
This pandemic has created a divide on the distribution of education systems in the
global context where nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries and all continents
have been greatly affected. Closures of schools and other learning spaces have been impacted
by 94% of the world's student population, up to 99% in low and lower middle income
countries (UN Policy Brief, August 2020.)
This crisis has resulted in exacerbating preexisting education disparities by reducing
the opportunities for many of the most vulnerable children, youth, and adults living in poor or
rural areas, girls, refugees, persons with disabilities and forcibly displaced persons to
continue their learning. Learning losses also threaten to extend beyond this generation and
erase decades of progress, not least in support of girls and young women’s educational access
and retention.

8
It has also been estimated that about 23.8 million additional children and youth
globally may drop out or have no access to school next year due to the pandemic’s economic
impact alone (UN Policy Brief, August 2020).
Income divides exposed through the gap between public and private institutions due to
technological barriers
Nepal’s digital gap between public and private schools has created a high divide
between the haves and have nots during the pandemic as digital learning is the only source of
formal education. Sharma (2020) argues that, only 8% of families and 12 % of schools have
access both to the internet and digital devices; further widening the gap of inequalities in
digital learning between advantaged and disadvantaged children. Only 13 % of schools might
be able to run online classes (though 35% of schools have access to the internet)
(Pandit,2020) which mostly includes urban areas while the rural areas are unfeasible for the
classes.
According to the Nepal Education Cluster (2020, p.1), the education sector of Nepal
caters 1,554,792 students in the secondary level i.e. grades 9 to 12; 26% of the total students
are enrolled in institutional schools i.e. private schools leaving 74%, the maximum enrolled
in public schools. The affected population of classes 9-12 is projected to be 1,659,048 where
only 2,15,408 have access to the internet and 808,033 have access to media but 475,417 have
no access to media and 189,985 are the most vulnerable/at-risk population (COVID-19
Education Cluster Contingency Plan, 2020, p.3).
Unlike private counterparts, public schools are not well equipped to conduct online or
distant learning options (Pandey, 2020). The Economic Survey (2019/20), reveals that among
the total public schools only 8,366 have computers and only 12% of the schools provide IT-
based study that has internet facilities. This itself shows how unequipped public schools are
when it comes to ICT based education and the pandemic has led students studying in the

9
public schools at a loss. Despite the efforts from the government, only 12% of children are
using distant learning tools of which 5% belong to poorer families (UNICEF, 2020).
Information and Communication Technology refers to information and
communication-related devices such as a computer, internet which are associated with the
term. While developed countries are quite ambitious with the term and well equipped,
developing countries like Nepal are still facing challenges incorporating it in the pedagogical
practices and have made very little progress in the implementation of ICT related policies in
general.
The policies and practices introduced thus far are just cities oriented as 72% of people
have access to the internet till date (Sharma, 2020) and most of them are from urban areas.
Our attitude exhibits urban mindset at the policy and decision-making levels. One of the
fundamental challenges is that our decision makers tend to assume that everybody resides
within the access of internet technology (Phuyal, 2020,p.9). Thus, the technological education
barrier has been deeply rooted in Nepal's context and has further created wider gaps in the
existing educational system.
Increase in the drop out rate
School closure due to COVID-19 is likely to increase the dropout rate. As Buckler et
al. (2020) argues that the longer schools are closed, the more dropouts occur. More generally,
the longer people pause a learning program, the less likely they are to see themselves as
learners. It becomes much harder (logistically and psychologically) to re-enroll and re-
engage”. In the context of Nepal, the dropout rates may increase due to two major reasons:
parent’s loss of jobs and loss of a source of remittance.
Many parents have lost their job due to the pandemic and thus, the family’s economic
crisis is likely to result in the children’s dropout from school. Similarly, Nepal’s economy is
largely dependent on foreign employment and the COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to

10
lose their job and return back to Nepal. This has affected the overall economy and also is
likely to show its effect on children’s dropout rate (Dawadi et al., 2020). Moreover, dropout
rates in the female students are estimated to be higher than the male students because the
education of girls in the South Asian countries is not prioritized whether it be in the name of
cultural norms or socio-economic status. In the Toba Tek Singh district of Pakistan, 50% of
the females have never been to school and in the Makwanpur district of Nepal, less than 30%
of the females have completed more than five years of schooling (World Economic Blog,
2020).
Further in the context of Nepal, dropout rates could take in the form of child labor by
helping their parents to lift the economic burden cast by the COVID-19 as pointed out by
Tiruneh (2020) who mentions that parents from rural localities may be reluctant to send their
children back to school because they may prefer their children to continue to support them in
farming and livestock herding.
Efforts of Nepal Government to manage the impact of COVID-19 on education
The Government of Nepal had a delayed response to the educational crisis brought
about by COVID-19. All schools in Nepal have been closed since 19th March 2020. After the
government's order to close schools, there were few alternatives opted for by the government.
The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology created a learning portal, which features
digital content like interactive learning games, videos of classroom lessons, audio, and e-
books. This content is categorized according to grade and subject for easier navigation and is
overseen by Nepal’s Curriculum Development Centre. Material required for children will be
available through the portal where they can have the liberty to study offline with the help of
uploaded materials. This will let the students use minimum internet access limited to just the
download of the materials.

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Similarly, to address the critical learning gap facing children during the COVID-19,
radio stations have also launched a distance-learning radio program called Radio Schools.
Across five districts, this is benefiting more than 100,000 children in grades 1-10.
After almost six months of school closure, on 4th September 2020, the government
published a directive that authorized the local governments to manage the teaching-learning
activities (Vidhyarthi Sikai Sahajikaran Nirdeshika, 2020). The directive mentions that the
students would be classified into five different categories based on their access to remote
learning platforms. The five categories are: Students with no access to any kind of
technology, with access to radio, with access to television, with access to a computer but not
with internet services and with access to ICT as well as internet services
Furthermore, the local governments will also have to prepare separate lists of the
students enrolled in different schools, those who are out of the school system, and those who
attend schools in other parts of the country but are now in their respective local units due to
the pandemic. The teacher or volunteers need to be mobilized to conduct direct classes in
small groups for students who do not have access to any kind of virtual teaching medium.
According to Nepal’s Ministry of Education, such students account for around 40 percent of
the total students in Nepal. According to the directive, the federal government will have a
coordinating role and would provide the necessary resources.
Way forward to assist students with no access to distant learning
The overall education budget for the fiscal year 2020/21 released during the pandemic
is NPR 171.71 billion. Though new plans have been introduced during the COVID-19 the
budget still seems to be insufficient for the purpose of promoting distance learning
(Maharjan, 2020). A greater issue at hand is also the fact that students and teachers lack the
skill to operate such online platforms.

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The best way forward would be using radio, SMS, and television because in
comparison to internet access most of the students have access to media as stated above.
According to Maharjan (2020), 96% of the households have access to smartphones; the
Household Survey (June, 2020), shows 55% of participants listen to “Hamro Kakshya” and
63% of the children even retain the lessons taught. Even the MICS (2020) reports that 51% of
students could access media such as radio and television. Nepal Telecom and Ncell also have
to be persuaded if the Nepal Education Cluster plans to provide internet packages, SMS
based packages, and services are to be actually implemented for a proper impact of distance
education methods during and after the pandemic.
According to Education International (2020), an initiative taken by the Nepal
Teachers’ Association “Every Home a School” campaign impelled the local governments to
coordinate between teacher members, students and parents through the available means of
communication. The campaign enforced headmasters to contact the subject teachers and the
subject teachers to teach through any available resources even if it meant a door to door
approach. The students are required to have a study plan in addition to exercises, indoor
games, yoga, and safety measures against COVID.
Finally, the COVID-19 Education Cluster Contingency Plan (2020, p.4), mentions
that for students who have no access to the internet, mobile phones, computers, televisions,
radios, and non-smart cell phones learning needs of the students will be carried out through
the distribution of printed learning packs along with guidance to parents/caregivers on
facilitation of their child’s learning and promote community/peer-based learning to lift the
restrictions.

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Impact on Assessment and acknowledging the shift towards delivering education in
emergency situations
As stated by Black & Wiliam (2018), internal assessments are essential as they
indicate students’ learning needs and then support learning. Similarly, Dawadi (2020)
emphasizes that assessment motivates students for learning. Due to school closure, a normal
method of assessment is not possible. In Nepal, few schools with access to resources have
resorted to online examinations but the majority of schools have not conducted any form of
assessment. Without the assessments, the students have not been promoted to the next grade.
This has created additional anxiety for students as they are stuck in the same grade (Dawadi
et al., 2020).
Some external assessments in Nepal like the Secondary Education Examination
(SEE), Board examination of Grade 11 and 12 have been conducted through internal
assessment. This can solve some of the problems around assessments and similar approaches
can be taken for other level examinations too. “Right to education in emergency situations”
was adopted by the UN General Assembly in July 2010 which states the fulfillment of
international education goals, protecting schools, and providing education in emergencies
such as conflict and natural disaster. Delivering emergency education is a temporary shift of
instructional delivery to an alternate delivery mode due to crisis circumstances, the primary
objective is to provide temporary access to learning and learning support that is quick and
reliable during the crisis.
In the context of Nepal, there have been some major shifts in conventional teaching
with online education; however, these shifts have widened the gaps in the educational system
such major shifts in the developing countries should be overcome through the possible and
creative methods of problem-solving. Before introducing ICTs into the remote, low-income
educational environment, isolated communities i.e. developing countries like Nepal it's

14
important to understand the technologies already at hand, for eg. it could be in the form of
interactive radio programs, mobile learning, blended learning, etc. In a study on education's
role in fragility and emergency situations, the Inter-Agency Network for Education in
Emergencies examined four case studies among which one was Afghanistan where education
was disrupted by conflict and war during those time radio education and DVDs were used to
maintain and expand educational access as well as promote education for girls. Therefore,
Nepal rather than being dependent on the complex ICT infrastructure and devices during the
pandemic crisis should shift its focus on the different strategies of Emergency education such
as: Using local volunteers and locally trained facilitators to support learning, different
parental engagement strategies, ensuring that educational content is shared in local and
minority languages, including sign languages, using captions, audio provision and graphics,
negotiating zero-rating to educational materials for all students in the country.
Empirical Research Findings: Data Analysis
This chapter constitutes the data retrieved from the interviews based on the data
collection tools i.e. active listening, observation, note-taking, and recording used by the
researchers. The data collected from the participants are then analyzed from the lens of the
literature review and critical analysis through observation as well. The thematic analysis of
the collected data is discussed below.
Challenges of online education dissemination
The major challenges faced by the participants were technical difficulties while using
online media for classes, lack of availability of devices due to low economic conditions,
improper flow of information from the side of the school and difficulty in the navigation of
the online devices/ classes. They explained that they often get frustrated due to the slow
internet and electricity cut down. From the economic point of view, the participants'
economic condition before and after the lockdown also showed a huge economic divide.

15
Especially the ones whose parents were indulged in labor work and small businesses like that
of grocery stores were having a tough time pulling ends to feed their families at home.
Despite their difficulties for online classes, it was a necessity to buy devices such as phones
and television in addition to wireless internet for the students to study but most of them could
not afford it.
The ones who did also had to borrow money as their income was null or as low as Rs.
10,000 - 15,000. None of the participants received any monetary support from the
government or NGOs. A major medium of the stressor was the lack of clear communication
from the school authority to the families and their students. “The flow of proper notice/
announcement through continuous updates rather than rumours would have made less stress
on my mental state”, said one of the participants. As per their words, some of the participants
came to know about the existence of online classes through their friends. One of the
participants was only able to join her classes after 2 months of online classes whereas another
participant failed to join his classes due to low/no income due to the lockdown. One
participant explained how it has been difficult for her entire class including the teachers to
use these online meeting applications. She said that there were always some technical
difficulties going on that distracted them from the actual class contents.
During the review of various articles focusing on how the government is working to
face these challenges, we note that the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology has
created a learning portal, which features digital content like interactive learning games,
videos of classroom lessons, audio, and e-books. This content is categorized according to
grade and subject for easier navigation and is overseen by Nepal’s Curriculum Development
Centre. But from the data that we have collected we see how there is a lack of awareness
among the children regarding these initiatives. The communication is very ambiguous and so
many of the participants even missed their classes due to the improper flow of information.

16
According to the Nepal Education Cluster (2020, p.1), 74% i.e. the maximum of students are
enrolled in public schools. All of our participants are also from public schools and the
challenges they are facing show how incompetent public schools are to function online
classes with ease not causing any disturbances. Among the secondary level students, 475,417
have no access to media and 189,985 are the most vulnerable/at-risk population (COVID-19
Education Cluster Contingency Plan, 2020, p.3). The Vidhyarthi Sikai Sahajikaran
Nirdeshika (2020), enables students with no access to such media who account for around 40
percent of the total students in Nepal according to the Ministry of education to be taught in
small groups by teachers and volunteers.
If that is not possible the COVID-19 Education Cluster Contingency Plan (2020, p.4),
mentions that students who have no access to any media have to be distributed printed
learning packs along with guidance to parents/caregivers on facilitation of their child’s
learning and promote community/peer-based learning to lift the restrictions. When we
interviewed the participants, none of the above mentioned were carried out. Instead as stated
above, one participant hasn’t been able to attend classes due to low income, one joined late
due to lack of information, the other had to take a loan for buying a smartphone and no one
has been sponsored for the money they are spending to use the data but they have paid
admission fees in addition to buying books to be allowed to attend the classes.
The participants are facing so many challenges which they cannot control like
miscommunication and technical difficulties. Even if it is a challenge they can overcome like
buying devices their parents are having to take loans. When the government as written in
policies and directives should be assisting them to overcome their problems we see that
nothing is actually being done by the provincial government even if they have the power. The
participants are doing their best to make the classes fruitful but there are a lot of distractions
that are not letting them reap the benefits of the classes. The data collected shows how

17
intervention as per the directives have to be taken and if they aren’t the education of the
secondary level students of public schools will be at a huge risk.
Alternative sources of education and availability of medium
Some schools are conducting online classes but only some students have the resources
to attend these classes. One of the participants currently in grade 10 has not been able to
attend online classes being conducted by her school as she did not have the required
technological access. She has been learning from old books of grade 10 which belonged to
her elder sister. Her school had conducted terminal examinations online, so she felt the
urgency to join classes and in order to attend the exams, her parents had to buy her a
smartphone. She added that most students have not been able to attend the classes and some
of them even did not get to attend the examination. Another participant who has three other
siblings said that her internet connection allows only one video call application to run at a
time. Using more than one call application at the same time makes the calls slow and thus at
one time, only one of the siblings gets to attend their online classes. Apart from that, other
participants who are able to attend the online classes said that they use laptops and phones to
support their online classes in their respective time periods. One of the participants uses her
brother's smartphone and her own WiFi or mobile data to attend her online classes and
another participant uses his father's smartphone and homeowners WiFi and his mobile data
for his online classes.
The data collected portrayed the inaccessibility of online classes for some of the
participants. Some participants managed to get access to digital devices but could not have
stable internet facilities whereas some did not have a stable digital device although they had
access to the internet. This data highlights the results stated by Sharma (2020) that, only 8%
of families and 12 % of schools have access to both internet and digital devices. In the
schools of respective participants, there were disparities between the students of the same

18
school itself in terms of resource accessibility. These schools could have opted for a rather
managed form of education dissemination.
One good example of better management can be taken from an initiative taken by the
Nepal Teachers’ Association called “Every Home a School” campaign that impelled the local
governments to coordinate between teacher members, students and parents through the
available means of communication (Education International, 2020). Furthermore, although
the government has confirmed that various radio and television programs have been
disseminating educational programs post COVID-19 school closure, none of the participants
in this study have been learning through the radio and television programs. Also, none of the
participants were approached by their local government which shows that the directive
published by the Nepal Government on 4th September 2020 entitled “Vidhyarthi Sikai
Sahajikaran Nirdeshika” has not yet been implemented in the areas of the participants’
settlements.
Thus, a better managed approach needs to be taken in order to conduct any type of
classes by the schools. This is an unprecedented time for all schools and respective
authorities but decisions need to be made considering the available resources of the students.
Unmanaged and rushed solutions will only widen the gap between the public and private
schools and even the gap between the students of the same school.
Disturbances caused by study from home
According to the data collected, most of the participants stated to be facing one or the
other disturbances caused in their home setting while attending their online classes. A total of
8 participants were interviewed, where 2 of the participants stated to have their family
members interrupting during their online classes, and also the same participants stated having
to take care of their family members and household chores during the hour of their online
classes as well. Whereas 1 participant mentioned not having any disturbances from family

19
members during the online classes and also said that the other family members carried on
with the chores during their online class hours. Another disturbance caused by the study from
home as stated by the participants was poor internet connection due to low income and lesser
interaction with friends and teachers during the online classes.
As mentioned above in the literature review, Sharma (2020) argues that only 8% of
families and 12 % of schools have access both to the internet and digital devices; further
widening the gap of inequalities in digital learning between advantaged and disadvantaged
children. Only 13 % of schools might be able to run online classes (though 35% of schools
have access to the internet) (Pandit,2020) which further supports what our participants said
regarding the problem they are facing in online classes. Despite the efforts from the
government, only 12% of children are using distant learning tools of which 5% belong to
poorer families (UNICEF, 2020).
Online classes aren’t a great substitute for in-person seminars. We can take an
example of the initiative taken across all the 30 districts of Odisha, India. Students of the
tribal community had the same problems like that as our participants. Article of Unicef, India
(2020) takes the case of one of the students of grade 9 in the Nayagarh district of Odisha. The
student is from a tribal school that was closed since March without any online classes but the
student continued to reread the course book again and again. That was also difficult because
she had to cook the meal in the morning, go to the field the whole day and again had to cook
at night leaving only a few hours before sleep to study. The student complained of missing
friends, teachers and the normal process of learning. Many students like her benefitted from
the initiative taken by the state government and Unicef enabling the mobilization of 4,700
teachers to reach out to 0.3 million scheduled tribe and caste communities (Srivastava, 2020).
This initiative clearly shows that the atmosphere and learning environment online is not the

20
same as sitting in a classroom with lecturers and classmates. Henceforth such initiatives
should be taken.
Ineffective online assessments
The outbreak of this pandemic has been heavy on the educational sector especially
those who were on the verge of being promoted to new classes even though the different
methods that were adapted for the student’s assessments have been skeptical about such an
online assessment approach. During the interview, the participants expressed their
discontentment with the online assessment as one of them explained, “These online exams
have no use at all. They are beneficial for ones who do not study and unfair to those who do.”
These words of the participants articulate the unfair treatment for the students who are
academically persistent and such assessments were centered towards raising school standards
rather than rewarding students with a fair assessment. Another participant also clarified
saying, “ these assessment methods are inconvenient as half of the class has not been able to
attend any classes due to different circumstances but are compelled to sit for their
examination”. As these online assessments are based upon different provisions of
assignment which are easily copied and presented through the internet and they are more
focused on piling up students with more and only assignments for the sake of education
continuance but ignoring the real purpose of learning through these assignments.
The various reviews of the article have revealed the work of the government towards
catering an impactful assessment process and establishing new approaches to assessment in
assisting the students to commence and extend their learning process. However, these steps
carried out by the government have been inadequate in accommodating the students which
have been presented from the data collected. The process of assessment holds a greater value,
especially the ones related to boards as board examination further determines the student’s
capacity and capability to study certain subjects for their higher education. The cancellation

21
of assessments has a negative impact on students’ learning creating anxiety in students as
they are stuck in the same grade/class they studied for a whole year (Black & Wiliam 2018).
Similarly, the postponement has a direct impact on students as the educational and
occupational future of students depends on their outcomes ( Dawadi, 2020).
The continuation of lockdown with increased impact on the education has further
restricted the external assessment and has compelled the schools to adapt internal measure for
the assessment via assignments, attendance and participation in the online classes however
these measures of internal/ online assessment has been skeptical due to the uneven
circumstances of digital devices, the unavailability of internet and the incompetent teachers in
carrying out online classes. According to The Economic Survey (2019/20), 12% of the public
schools provide IT-based educational provision that has internet facilities. This itself shows
how unequipped public schools are when it comes to ICT based education and the pandemic
has led students studying in the public schools at a loss and lack of competent ICT provisions
to be induced in education has led to carrying out an ineffective online assessment.
Eventually, Murphy and Wyness’s (2020), exhibits an inaccuracy while conducting
online assessment results. One of the drawbacks of online assessment is that it lacks careful
measures in assessing students’ skills and to ensure the reliability and validity of the
assessments. Many of our participants expressed their disregard for the online assessment as
these assessments will be long-life placed in their certificates before enrolling to their
respective careers and the partiality conducted is moreover to improve the image of the
school rather than providing students with reliable and valid measures of assessment. Thus,
this ineffective online assessment is evident that the government has no firm grip over the
educational system and has been stagnant in presenting strong strategies in bringing the
situation to the middle ground.

22
Way forward to improve the situation
Now to make the situation better we had asked our participants for solutions to cope
with the situation where our participants came up with various interesting ideas. Since the
participants were unable to know about their online classes earlier through the school
authorities leading to the gap between joining their classes, the participants mentioned the
necessity of proper communication between the school authorities and the students. The
participants suggested that the school or government should be prioritizing education and
programs to promote education for students such as them, providing them with necessary
materials such as the Internet, data packages and technological alternatives to the less
fortunate students who are unable to access online classes. Other participants came up with
suggestions such as stabilizing the situation through community-based education
dissemination, providing education from area to area by maintaining all precautionary
measures and also suggested a reading hub where different students could exchange their
academic books within their area without having to make extra expenses on learning. One of
the participants stated the urgency of Technological knowledge to be incorporated in the
curriculum in upcoming days as half of the technical errors were due to lack of knowledge on
ICT causing disruption in the flow of study. One of the other participants stated that only
conducting online classes couldn't be considered as a solution as most of the students didn't
have the resources to attend the classes. A participant even suggested that the students who
live nearby their schools and do not have access to ICT could physically be called to schools
and taught along with precautionary measures.
Now the way forward suggested by the participants shows that the best way forward
would be using radio, SMS and television because in comparison to internet access most of
the students have access to media as stated above. This way forward is applicable because
according to Maharjan (2020), 96% of the households have access to smartphones; the

23
Household Survey (June, 2020), shows 55% of participants listen to “Hamro Kakshya” and
63% of the children even retain the lessons taught. Even the MICS (2020) reports that 51% of
students could access media such as radio and television. Though this is applicable we
observed that none of the participants use such mediums.
It can be said that the schools prefer their own scheduled online classes rather than
that of radio and television but they need to be considerate towards the comfort of the
students as well. For effective learning, there needs to be a reduction in cognitive load and an
increase in interactivities during online classes. There also needs to be revision classes along
with psychomotor hands-on teaching after the COVID-19 pandemic is under control.
Policy Review
When it comes to the matter at hand regarding the impact COVID has had on the
education of secondary level students of public schools the following education and ICT
related policies can be reviewed;
National Education Policy, 2076 (2019)
The salient features of the policy include education in the mother tongue, technical
education promotion, teacher training and education for all. The policy explicitly mentions
educational opportunities to be accessible to one and all. The policy moreover promotes
technological friendly resources to transform the education system. Now that during COVID
19 we have seen the need for such technological resources and training to monitor/
communicate through them the policy seems to have just made theoretical assumptions
lagging much in implementation.
Act Relating to Compulsory and Free Education, 2075 (2018)
According to Section 2(a) in Chapter 1 of the Act Relating to Compulsory and Free
Education, 2018 compulsory education is defined as a mandatory provision to study regularly
and complete the basic level of study upon getting admitted to any educational or alternative

24
education institutions. Section 2(j) of the same act defines Secondary education as that from
grade nine to grade twelve. Public schools are defined as those operated by the investment of
the Government of Nepal, Provincial Government or Local level in Section 2(q) of the Act.
The act focuses on the right to education for each and every student which as the data
we collected shows is being hampered in the current compromising situation that has taken
place due to the pandemic. The state is also taken liable to provide free education up to a
secondary level which has not been seen in practice as our participants expressed despair in
not being able to join online classes until they paid the due fees and bought the asked books.
Section 14 of the Act has also stressed the availability of alternative education to be provided
which is not currently being encouraged as from the data we collected no student studies
from available media like TV and radio because they are not established as formal sources of
education. Focusing on the possible way forward as per the recommendations of the
participants about community education clubs; it can be organized at the local level as the act
clearly states the provision of Gurukul in Section 16(2).
COVID - 19 Education Cluster Contingency Plan, 2020
The contingency plan was prepared in March 2020 after the schools had to be shut
down as a precautionary measure against the COVID - 19 viruses. The plan clearly mentions
that 45% of the students are likely to have no source to any form of media either online or
offline to receive a formal education. On May 4th, 2020 the Ministry of Education, Science
and Technology (MoEST) published a notice asking the schools not to take fees for any
online classes but we can see from the responses of our participants that the notice was not
seriously taken by schools.
The cluster gives 3 scenarios namely if the school reopened before the new fiscal year
(Mid-July 2020), the school reopened before Dashain (September 2020) and schools remain
closed for the entire academic year. The former two didn’t happen so it will be of no essence

25
to review them but the latter scenario seems currently viable to review given the current
situation. In this situation, the plan clearly states that children who do not have access to
media should be provided with education through community/peer-based learning. The
scenario also promotes the distribution of materials for students with no access to media. As
the planning responsibility has now been delegated to the provincial and local levels but as
we can see and observe much is not being done. This fact can be stressed by the pleading way
forwards of our participants which include the provision of reading material, distribution of
ICT resources by the schools, forming community learning hubs and re-opening schools with
security measures; all of which are stated in the plan but not been practiced.
National ICT Policy, 2072 (2015)
The national ICT policy was developed by the ministry of information and
communication, its major aim was to achieve the entire population of Nepal to have access to
the internet by 2020”, which referred that at least 75% of the population will have digital
literacy skills and simultaneously, 90% will be able to access to the broadband services.
However, the proposed aim of the policy seems to be invalid in the present pandemic
situation as only 72% of the population have access to the internet till date and most of them
are from urban areas (Sharma, 2020).
Similarly, the policy under ICT in Education emphasized integrating and deploying
ICT in the education system, ICT based Teacher training and e-learning system which looks
forward to providing necessary funds through government resources in ensuring ICT in
education, teacher training institutions and programs will be introduced and e-learning
systems will be extended to achieve educational services at all levels. The adoption of ICT in
the Nepali educational system was to ensure the continuous flow of the learning facilities and
activities in both public and private institutions through regular monitoring.

26
This policy is also prominent towards providing the use of ICTs in rural and remote
areas to bridge the gaps created by the digital divide. The policy aims to expand ICTs in the
rural and remote communities which are deprived of such advanced technology as well as
take up nation- wide digital literacy initiatives to enhance the use of ICTs. In the outbreak of
COVID-19 the Nepali educational system has been overwhelming especially due to the wider
gaps created by the digital divide although this policy was created to eradicate these widening
gaps which have failed and have been inadequate to mitigate the issues of rural and remote
areas and their communities in fostering education to their students.
School Sector Development Plan (SSDP) 2016- 2023
SSDP is an extension of the School Sector Reform Plan (SSRP), 2009-2015, SSDP
was developed under MoE and ICT which aims to project the cross-cutting theme in the
provision of education. SSDP considers ICT as a significant tool to provide and improve
pedagogical practices by including ICT prerequisites in secondary schools and by
incorporating ICT in the secondary curriculum, similarly, the policy also stretches in
establishing ICT learning centers in schools. However, inculcating ICT in education doesn't
mean inculcating computer subjects in the curriculum or letting the use of ICTs be limited to
the administrative work which is seen as a prevalent drawback in Nepal's educational
institutions.
The policy also mentions the development of instructional materials and integration of
human resources for the enhancement of technology in the curriculum through trained
teachers and developing portals, websites and e-libraries. Simultaneously, developing online
and offline training courses and learning materials for students and teachers. The significant
limitation of this policy is that the knowledge on digital literacy and knowledge on computer
subject teaching are different disciplines that are not well segregated thus, it creates confusion
and chaos while functioning.

27
Critical Reflection
The collected data and policies reviewed clearly poses one major question and that is
how will the schools provide education to the 45% of the students who are projected to not
have access to any medium of education. The reviewed policies clearly show the gap between
the haves and have nots on which we have stressed in almost all the parts of the seminar
paper. The policies we reviewed clearly show that it is not impossible to support alternative
education or provide community group learning but the fact is that the steps asked by the
government are not being implemented. This is proven by the responses of our participants.
We believe another appropriate intervention given the distance of a maximum of the
children from their public schools within the valley would be semi-online education using
social media sites. Many of the students as discussed throughout the paper do not have access
to laptops or online conferences supporting smartphones. For them, education can be semi-
online through social media like Messenger, Whatsapp and Viber. The teachers can record
lectures and send them to class group chats which can be accessed by students even through
data that will cost considerably less in comparison to online classes. Regarding assessments,
the teachers can send questions via these chats and the children or their parents can drop off
the written answer sheets at their school because the public schools are maximally close in
proximity to the majority of the students i.e. walking distances. They can later collect the
answer sheets. This particular intervention is being followed in the public schools of Birati,
Calcutta which is proving to be a success. Hence, we can also consider this kind of
intervention.
With regard to the discussion above in the ICT policy and reflecting on it from the
data collected and articles reviewed, ICT policies for school education have failed to
formulate into school education practice in many ways. The limited access of internet to the
entire population of Nepal (especially hampering the student population) and the

28
unavailability of digital devices and the problem of electricity have been an added burden to
many students in the rural and remote areas which further widens the gap between public and
private institutions (TVN, 2016).
According to the history of ICT Policy in Nepal though it dates back to 2000 but till
2010 there was no awareness in the public schools for integrating ICT in school education,
although NRS. 50,000 rupees was provided to purchase computers (MoIC, 2010). Till date,
out of total public schools, only 8,366 public schools have computers and only 12% of the
schools provide IT-based study that has internet facilities (Economic Survey, 2019/20). Such
limitations affected our participants while integrating a new mode of learning during this
pandemic which resulted in the delayed provision of education through digital mediums and
the lack of instructional materials that were to be prepared as per the policy beforehand for
such emergency situations wasn’t available.
Similarly, the lack of human resource management in disseminating lessons to the
students, the secondary level education is considered an important benchmark as it includes
board examination but due to the inadequate skills and experience to run online classes
especially for technical subjects such as science and mathematics, the participants presented
great distress. Simultaneously, the basic problems of sound, hacking and internet connection
due to the lack of digital literacy among teachers and students were additional problems that
weren't tackled by the government given policies to improve the situation. We firmly believe
through the conducted analysis based on extensive studies regarding education/ICT and data
collected from the participants that the local level should adhere to the discussed plans and
policies to secure the right to education for students in such a critical crisis situation.
Conclusion
On this very journey of our seminar paper, we started off by collecting information
from various articles that could be useful to us to make our seminar paper abundant enough

29
for future research. Relating to the topic “Education during COVID 19 pandemic: A
qualitative study among secondary level students of public schools in Kathmandu Valley”,
we were able to find various policies governed by our nation: Act Relating to Compulsory
and Free Education, 2075 (2018), National Education Policy, 2076 (2019), COVID - 19
Education Cluster Contingency Plan, 2020, National ICT Policy, 2072 (2015), School Sector
Development Plan (SSDP) 2016- 2023.
During the collection of empirical data, we were able to communicate with the
participants (students) directly via zoom meetings. The participants during their interview
stated that they did not have a laptop or a smartphone which made it difficult for them to
connect with their academics. Now, after the lockdown has lifted officially, the same
participants have stated that they are able to go to their schools to attend their examination.
The participants suggested that during such a crisis, it would really be helpful if sustainable
education planning could be conducted such as community education, radio programs related
to education so that it could easily be accessed by any students that would lessen the hamper
caused by such misfortunes enabling them to carry on with their academics.
With the help of this seminar paper and our findings relating to pre covid as well as
post covid, we believe that it will be helpful for future researches to study Nepal’s quality of
education during and after this pandemic, compare with the dropout rates and follow up with
the new policies.
Recommendation
The research has highlighted the impact of Covid-19 on the education of secondary
level students. The majority of the participants in this study have faced difficulties in the
present online form of education and thus it is recommended that the Government of Nepal
prioritize education and plan out possible safe methods of reopening schools. In cases of
online education, there need to be strategies in place to provide students with necessary

30
materials such as the internet, data packages and technological alternatives in order to ensure
equal access to online education. Other forms of information dissemination such as radio,
SMS and television can be further promoted. Moreover, the policies drafted for education
management during Covid-19 need to immediately be brought into action.
The impacts noted during Covid-19 on education have helped to further recognise the
areas in education that need to be improved in the upcoming days. These unprecedented
times of Covid-19 have highlighted the urgent need to build a resilient education system for
the equitable and sustainable development of Nepal. Understanding the loopholes in our
current educational system, this is a good opportunity to improve and altogether reimagine
the system of education itself.
Based on the findings of this study, the following are recommended for further studies:
i. A quantitative study can be done on the accessibility of education during the Covid-19.
ii. A comparative study can be conducted on the challenges of education during Covid-19
between the public and private school students
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Annex
Semi-Structured Questionnaire

36
I. Basic information
i. Name of the participant (optional):
ii. Gender: M/F/OTHER
iii. Age:
iv. Grade:
v. Home Address:
vi. School Address:
II. Socio-economic status
i. Average income before lockdown -
ii. Average income during lockdown -
iii. Source of income -
iv. Amount spent on educational needs during lockdown -
III. Descriptive Questions
i. What are the alternative solutions (if any) implemented by your school to continue
the education during COVID 19? (Online classes, home tuitions, books distribution,
etc.)
ii. What are the alternative education resources accessible to you? Have you been
involved in any medium of education during the school closure (Radio / TV /
Tuitions)?
iii. How effective has the alternative education/learning experience been so far? What
kind of challenges are you facing during the alternative education being provided?
iv. What kind of challenges are you facing during the alternative education being
provided?
v. What is the environment in which you are attending online education? Is it as effective
in the environment at home as it was in school?

37
vi. What shortcomings will you potentially face in the future to resume your education
after the schools reopen?
vii. Have there been any forms of internal assessment in your school? If yes, how
effective do you think those assessments were in your education? If no, what kind of
mental stress have you faced regarding the halt in your promotion to a higher grade?
viii. Have you received any aid through the government or NGO/INGOs to cover
educational expenses required for alternative education?
ix. What solutions do you think should be implemented by schools to address the
problem faced by many other students like you?
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