Regarding children education, two major reasons are found causing drop outs.
1. Poverty.
2. Gender Discrimination.
Academic Education System:
The schooling system of Nepal is till the 10th grade, completing which, a student is awarded a school leaving certificate. A student has formal education of 13 years starting from Nursery class, LKG, UKG and 1 to 10th grade. The SLC (School Leaving Certificate) examination is considered to be the high school education level exam which, is popularly called the “iron gate”. Then follows the PCL ( Proficiency Certificate Level) or Intermediate Level of two years education and Bachelors for 2-5 years of regular classes depending upon the selected course, then the Masters level and so on.
Mostly, students of the city area go for the new and upcoming courses in the Intermediate level and the Bachelor’s level. Whereas, students from the remote parts struggle to complete their SLC level while doing their household or other works to help their parents’ economic condition.
Problems that have been seen for the students of the poor family in rural parts of Nepal, to further continue their education is, their involvement in cattle grazing, taking care of their younger brothers/sisters (usually more than 1), helping parents with their work (whether it is household or agriculture, shops, or going to work in other’s fields) and the most striking is the lack of financial stability of parents to support their education. Even in some parts of remote Nepal, we have found the lack of awareness among the parents about the need of education for their children, specially the girls. This clearly indicates the need for parents to be awakened through education and economically empowered.
Even if students of rural parts survive the strike of financial attacks till their 10th grade, they might or might not be able to continue their further education due to the lack of colleges in their villages, which is might not in most of the cases.
Government of Nepal has provided free education for students up to 10th grade but the education materials required are just another hindrance to stop them along with social formation and geographical complexity.
There are other factors too that play their part of depriving children from education like lack of awareness, uneducated parents, distant school, lack of teachers in schools, lack of teaching materials, younger children at home, etc. But, the above mentioned two seem to have contributed the unsettling darkness in career of these innocent and unknown children.
Literacy Rate Population above six years of age
Male Female Total
Jumla 46.9 16.7 32.4
Rautahat 42.6 21.6 32.5
Siraha 53 26.8 40.3
Udayapur 64.5 42.2 53.3
Nepal 65.1 42.5 53.7
Source: Government of Nepal, Ministry of Education and Sports, 2001 ( http://www.moe.gov.np )
Adult Literacy Program
It is not very difficult to find adults who cannot write a single letter in most of the remote parts of Nepal. It is not something that should be taken so surprisingly, though it really is. The reason is that those were the parts where there used to be no ray of electric light neither any road link without walking for atleast an hour or two. But, this illiteracy might create a major problem due to the misconception that "life goes on without education too" and "there are other more important things than education". Visiting various places, we easily find these concepts among the uneducated adults and for that reason their children are also deprived or less motivated even towards getting the well deserved formal school education. Further more, it is impossible to expect about the hygiene and sanitation where importance of education is unknown and even witch doctors and sacrifices to gods and deities are made hoping to cure diseases. Though situation has improved a bit, awareness level of adults are far away from satisfactory which needs to be worked upon, even to ensure the safeguarding of their own children. |
