31 May, Kathmandu. The practice of Kathmandu Metropolitan City has shown that when the local level is active, scholarships given by private schools are given to poor and talented students.
In the 8th Amendment of the Education Regulations in 2067, private schools provided scholarships to poor, disabled, women, Dalit and tribal students without reducing the total number of students by at least 10 percent. But due to the lack of monitoring of whether the target group got the scholarship or not, it was like a school disaster.
The new constitution of 2072 placed basic and secondary level education in the single right list of the local level. During the first term, this issue was not among the priorities of many local levels.
The schools used to send the details of the scholarship students, the municipalities accepted them and kept them. But most of the famous private schools have sent the details of the children who have access to the scholarship quota to the municipalities after receiving a certain amount of money.
Addressing this, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City has started efforts to deliver student scholarships to the target group.
The metropolis has developed a software to keep the details of the scholarship recipients with their photos. Where details of more than 13,000 students were registered in the last academic session.
A selection committee has been formed since this academic session to make the scholarship more effective. The ward president or the person appointed by him is the coordinator of the selection committee, the school inspector, the principal and the chairman of the management committee are members.
Govinda Prasad Sharma, education officer of the education department of the metropolis, says, ‘The selection committee studies who among the applicants needs a scholarship with the facilitation of resource teachers. This year’s scholarship has become more effective.’
What is the legal system?
In the Education Regulations 2059, institutional schools must provide scholarships to poor, disabled, women, Dalit and tribal students without reducing the total number of students by at least 10 percent.
In the Compulsory and Free Education Act, 2075, private investment schools provide at least 10% scholarship for schools with up to 500 students, at least 12% for schools with 500 to 800 students and at least 15% for schools with more than 800 students.
Kathmandu Metropolitan City has also given continuity to the same legal arrangement in the Education Act. The Education Act stipulates that 10% of the scholarship should be considered as 100% and 50% of the amount should be deposited in the Metropolitan Education Development Fund and the remaining 50% should not be reduced, and free scholarships should be provided to disabled, poor, disabled, women, Dalit or tribal students.
Private school administrators also admit that the scholarships have reached the target group when the metropolis monitors them. Saying that private schools have been giving full and partial scholarships since the past, a school owner says, ‘When the Kathmandu Metropolitan City implemented the law, 100 percent scholarship has been applied to the designated target group.’
According to the metropolis, 18,422 students have received scholarships in 473 private schools this year. 31 schools are yet to send the details.
What will other municipalities learn?
Kathmandu Metropolis is receiving praise for the effective implementation of scholarships given by private schools. Also, if other municipalities like Kathmandu Metropolis implement the law, many students will benefit.
Keshav Prasad Dahal, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, says that they have written letters to municipalities across the country to implement the legal provisions related to scholarships.
He says, ‘We hope that other municipalities would have followed the experience of Kathmandu to see how the existing laws can be implemented.’
Educationist Prof.Dr. Laxman Gyawali says that all local levels should learn this work of Kathmandu metropolis. Stating that the metropolis has invested a large amount of money for the educational improvement of public schools in its area, he further said, ‘The implementation of scholarships in private schools as provided by law can be considered as a trend setter and other municipalities should also learn from this.’
Meenakshi Dahal, an educationist, says that although the implementation of provisions in the law is positive, it should not be interpreted as an opportunity for students.
“Implementation of the provision in the law is very positive, but the local government should not be interpreted as giving the opportunity to study in private schools,” she said. “The main responsibility of the local government is to improve the educational quality of public schools.”
He emphasized that the municipalities should make the improvement of public education in their area the first priority along with the implementation of the law.
Is the scholarship a small fee or free?
Scholarships given by private schools to poor and talented students only include tuition fees. Fees are charged for admission, food, bus etc. Kathmandu Metropolitan City has started discussing that it will not be possible to charge fees for other topics except bus and food.
Metropolitan sources say, ‘We are currently discussing what to include in the scholarship. Not only the monthly fee, but the bus facility used by the students and food should be made free or everything should be discounted.’
Private school administrators are not positive about this. ‘It has been heard that we will not be able to charge any fees from this year’, Pabson Metropolitan President Gyan Bahadur Shrestha told Online News, ‘How can we run the school like this?’
According to him, the metropolis has not classified schools and has not determined new fees in the last five years.
“School classification in February, fee determination in March, enrollment in May and scholarship details in May, scholarship details are to be given without anything,” he said.
