ROLPA, Nov 10: Out of the total 407 community schools in Rolpa district, 232 schools do not have any government-assigned teachers.
The schools without a single government-assigned teacher include 101 primary schools, 67 lower secondary schools and 64 high schools, according to the District Education Office (DEO), Rolpa.
The district has a total of 86,523 registered students. The communities there contributed around Rs 230 million to provide wages to teachers.
204 of 407 community schools in Rolpa without govt teachers
Even though education is said to be free, it has not been implemented in practice. “The quota for government-assigned teachers has been reduced by 60 percent. At present, there are quotas for 842 teachers at the primary level, 104 at the lower secondary level and just 63 at high school level,” said District Education Officer Kalpana Ghimire.
Even though the problem is serious, none of the political parties has made it its priority to resolve it. They have not mentioned it in their manifestoes for the upcoming parliamentary and provincial elections.
The political parties have only focused on roads, electricity, water and employment as their top agendas. They are completely silent on critical needs like basic education.
“The problem of not having the teachers' quota is there. But there is no willpower to develop the education system, due to which we are lagging behind in this sector,” added Ghimire.
The constitution of Nepal has secured the right to have access to education to every citizen of the country. The constitution has also enacted free and compulsory education until high school level. In Rolpa, however, such things are on paper only.
Ghimire said the situation this year is not better than that of the last year. “Parents are forced to pay for education even though it is supposed to be free.”
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