National
Cabinet extends education offices' term
The government has extended the term of District Education Offices to ensure smooth transition of education oversight authority to local bodies.The government has extended the term of District Education Offices to ensure smooth transition of education oversight authority to local bodies.
A Cabinet meeting on Tuesday extended the term of DEOs, which was due to end in mid-April, by another three months because some responsibilities like managing the Secondary Education Examinations (SEE) and preparing retirement papers of teachers have not been delegated to the local governments. The DEOs have until mid-July to see these tasks through.
The Constitution of Nepal authorises the local governments to govern the education sector up to grade 12. Their tasks include curriculum design, teacher management, conducting examinations and evaluating students. Payment to teachers and support staff, infrastructure building, issuing school operation licence, upgrading schools and monitoring schools also comes under their jurisdiction.
Currently, the Local Level Governance (LLG) Act which guides the functioning of the local government has listed 23 points that the local governments can do in the education sector. Regarding the Rs 1 trillion School Sector Development Programme, the government has yet to decide which agency should oversee the ambitious programme.
The federal government is for either setting up a focal agency for education at District Coordination Offices or authorising the provincial governments.