National
Local units start licence process
Local federal units have started the process of issuing permits to schools and upgrading their classes, an authority that rested with the District Education Offices before the local governments were elected. The Constitution of Nepal authorises the local level to manage basic and secondary school education.Local federal units have started the process of issuing permits to schools and upgrading their classes, an authority that rested with the District Education Offices before the local governments were elected. The Constitution of Nepal authorises the local level to manage basic and secondary school education.
Kathmandu Metropolitan City, the largest metropolitan city in the country in terms of population and resources, has collected applications from schools for new licence and upgradation. The education department of the KMC has received dozens of applications, mainly for permits to schools to run higher classes.
The Local Level Governance Act, which sets the legal basis for implementing constitutional provisions in the transitional phase, allows the local governments to manage schools up to the secondary level except for conducting exams and drafting the curriculum.
Part 3, Clause 1 (8) of the Act says the local governments have the authority for school mapping, issuing licence, upgradation and their monitoring.
“We have already collected applications and are in the process of deciding on them,” said Prahlad Aryal, chief of the education department at the KMC. He, however, said a lack of coordination with the District Education Office, which has every information about schools, had been creating problems in decision making.
The Act envisages shutting all the District Education Offices by mid-April and delegating the authority to the local level. However, officials from the Ministry of Education say there should be entities similar to the DEOs as there are still a lot of coordination issues.
The Act delegates 23 authorities to the local governments but there is no clarity on which body works as the coordinating agency between the federal government and the local level and the National Examination Board and the local units.
The board is responsible for holding examination of grades 10 and 12 while the local governments can manage the exams of grade 8. Hari Lamsal, spokesperson for the ministry, said options are being floated on which agency would have the coordinating role with the local level. Among them are merging the DEOs, setting up a department at the District Coordination Office, having a field office of the federal government or the provincial government taking the responsibility.