Over 25,000 students and their guardians visited the event inaugurated by Education Minister Chitra Lekha Yadav amid a function at Exhibition Hall in Bhrikutimandap.

Addressing the inaugural session of the four-day event, Yadav claimed that the quality of the Nepali academic institutions has been growing every year and they have been producing competitive human resource capable of competing globally. Stating that the Nepali students are flying to around 70 countries across the world for education, she said it is the challenge for the government and private education providers to stop them.

“It is everyone’s duty to create an environment for providing quality education within the country and use the expertise for the betterment of the homeland,” said Yadav. She also lauded the initiative of Kantipur Media Group and Hissan to bring over 100 academic institutions of the country under an umbrella. The number of participating academic institutions have grown to 111 from 60 last year. According to the organisers the fair has been helpful in promoting a culture of cooperation among educational institutions.

Also addressing the session, Chairman and Managing Director of KMG Kailash Sirohiya said the fair has made the job easier for thousands of students by bringing all the renowned higher secondary schools and colleges under one roof. “The students no longer need to move from college to college for information. That can be done at a single event,” he said. Sirohiya said the parents and students should carry out deep research about the academic institutions before admission. He said such an event will help provide a proper picture of the domestic education institutions to the general public.

Ramesh Kumar Silwal, vice-chairman of Hissan and the fair coordinator, said the main aim of event is to give a message that the domestic schools and colleges are capable of providing international standard education. He claimed that the event has gained a reputation of an official education fair of the country because of the overwhelming response.

Bhim Lal Gurung, member-secretary of Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB), said an unhealthy competition among the college owners in advertising and publicity will be controlled by such fairs as all the publicity will be done from the single venue.  According to the organisers, the daily exhibition will be followed by various sessions and seminars on the education system and different courses and their scopes. The organisers have announced to provide gift hampers on each day of the event and over 100 scholarships through a lucky draw.

Over 200,000 visitors, mainly those who took the SLC exams recently, are expected in the event that will conclude on May 18. Goldengate College, Morgan College, Global College of Management, Capital College and Research Centre and Princeton College are the main sponsor of the programme, while Himalayan Whitehouse College, Pen-tagon College, VS Niketan, Kathmandu Model HSS, Mega College, NASA College, Kanjirowa College, Everest Florida HSS, CG Education, SBBR, Softwarica college, South Western State College and National Integrated College are the supporters.