Mixed Views On New Academic Session

 This week was a bit different from last week. Until last week, all the schools, parents, and students seemed to be confused, worried, and stressed. In contrast, this week, enthusiasm engulfed the social media platforms. There were notices bombarding regarding new admissions, school opening dates, and advertisements of different schools. Although the government initially announced that the new academic school session in 2083 BS will officially begin on Baishakh 15, with student enrollment and admission, and formal classes will start only from Baishakh 21, almost all of the schools could not wait that long to start the classes.

In previous years, the new academic session would commence in the first week of Baishakh, so the schools were prepared accordingly this year as well. And the governmental announcement of delaying the formal class schedule was surprising and completely unexpected. The time gap from Baishakh 2 to 14 gave a headache, particularly to the parents. So, when they heard their children's school was going to start on the 15th of Baishakh, they felt huge relief.

Views on new academic session 

In the meantime, I talked to several teachers, parents, and students to find out their views on the government's decision to delay the academic session. All of them univocally expressed that they would love the school to begin sooner rather than later, like in previous years. However, their reasons for this were different.

The teachers stated that since this break was unexpected, they could not enjoy it at all. This is mainly because they had already holidayed immediately after the final examination to refresh themselves. So, the further days off were quite boring. They complained that their daily routine was disturbed, they became lazy, and their sleeping time was irregular. When they had school, they would spend time looking for teaching and learning materials on the Internet, but during the vacation period, they just scrolled down the reels and videos for hours and hours. Even though they regretted this later, they could not help themselves from getting away from their mobile phones to fill their free time. 

Some of the teachers grumbled that to kill time, they went to the marketplace and spent a lot of money buying things that they did not need urgently. This year's break reminded them of the uncertain lockdown period during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. The parents had other stories to share. They expected their children to begin the new school session in the first week of Baishakh, but it could not happen. They jokingly added, only they knew how hard it was for them to manage the extra two-week break, handling the children. The main challenge they faced was children's mobile phone addiction; if not the mobile phone, then the television. The parents tried to encourage their children towards reading or other creative activities, but they would snap, "I'll read and do everything when the school opens, not now." The early teenagers' parents were worried about their children's bad company, since these days drug abuse is an acute problem among people. They were scared thinking that their children could be prey of drug abusers or drug dealers if they allowed them to go out of the house. Some parents said that their children would be in safe hands once they started school. The working parents faced the babysitting problem; the spouses needed to take leave from their workplace alternatively. The parents agreed with the teachers on spending money. They complained that more staying home meant more expenditure on outings and entertainment for children.

The children also said that they would prefer going to school over staying home doing nothing but staring at their mobile phones the whole day. In the question, "Why school?" They responded, "We can play with friends at school. We can learn many things from teachers. Our parents will also be happy when we go to school." The older children shared that their parents would always ask them to help with household chores, which they did not like. They also needed to be a babysitter for the younger siblings.

Mental pressure

These views indicate that the unplanned holiday may not be as effective as it should be. Although the government had a good intention behind delaying the new school session for about three weeks, it did not work out perfectly. It seemed like people's mental pressure was much more enormous than saving fuel at this time of crisis. What was lacking on the part of the government was untimely and unclear information. It suddenly announced that formal classes at schools will begin only from Baishakh 21; this created a big "why" among the concerned people. There appeared to be different speculations on an everyday basis, which made the public more worried and impatient. 

Research shows that even one week of school deprivation causes tremendous losses for children. Because of this, their academic, social and emotional well-being will be jeopardised. Other studies point out that if children are out of school for quite a long time, there may increase in physical abuse, sexual abuse, violence or even early pregnancies. Therefore, any decision, especially related to children's education, should be taken more wisely, considering each and every aspect but not abruptly. A quick decision may lead to disasters. After all, school is a safe place for children to learn and grow. This can be a lesson for the government in the future.

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, May 1, 2026 ) 

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Information Gap Misleads Parents

 These days, a lot of confusion is in the air in relation to school education in Nepal. Some of them include if there is two-day weekend (Saturday and Sunday), then there will not be sufficient working days to complete the course; now, children up to grade five should not have to take any sort of examination; the government is going to make school education free even in the private schools; the parents, whose children go to the institutional schools,  should not have to pay tuition fees of this Baishakh; the private schools are going to be closed, blah, blah, blah. 

Mainly, social media is responsible for spreading all sorts of fake news and sadly, a majority of people rely on such news; they do not bother to cross-check with the authentic media. And the word of mouth is very strong to influence people. For instance, the other day, some new parents came to our school to inquire about the admission process for this session. At that time, someone just appeared and intervened, "Hey! You don't have to admit your children this time. The government has made admission free. Plus, you don't need to pay tuition fees for the month of Baishakh." As soon as those parents heard this, they left the school without asking for clarity from our side.

Misinterpretation 

How can people misinterpret the information? It is clearly said by the Ministry of Education that before beginning the new session, neither a school can admit students nor can it take any sort of fees. There is nothing new but the government is only emphasising following strictly what is mentioned in the Education Regulations formulated in 2059 B.S. Furthermore, it is also stated that schools cannot take monthly tuition fees for more than 12 months in a year. Doesn't the government know that the staff salary in private schools is managed by the monthly tuition fees? How dare some people spread such baseless news?

For the educated parents, it is not difficult to process all sorts of information and understand the government policies, but unfortunately, many of the parents in our community are uneducated or illiterate and do not have access to the authentic information, so they are affected by rumours the most. Until now the general public strongly believes that their children get better education in institutional schools in comparison to community ones. So, they prefer to send them to such schools even if they do not have high-income sources. They work hard in odd jobs just to be able to afford private education for their children.

There is no doubt that the government is trying to bridge the gap between these two categories of schools and introduce different directives on an everyday basis, which sounds good. This way, students from the community schools would also have access to the same level of quality education as their counterparts from the institutional schools. However, it feels a bit hasty to confuse people and make them doubtful on the implementation side of these directives. 

Currently, there is a kind of vacuum regarding the commencement of studies for this session. The government has made an announcement that the teaching-learning at schools will begin from only the 21st of Baishakh. This has given parents a headache. They are quite worried about not finding ways to engage their children at home. As everybody knows, these days children are more interested in mobile phones rather than in books. For them, school is the only place to be in touch with books and this opportunity has been snatched. Another problem associated with the delayed beginning of the session is with working parents. They find babysitting very challenging. 

Many parents are complaining these days feel like COVID-19 days or even worse. At least, on those days their children would take online classes, but now they are staying at home idly. They think the situation has created unnecessary tension in them and nearly a month is going to be wasted. There is no uniformity in following the governmental directives in all municipalities as well. Some municipalities have issued a notice to start a new session from the first week of Baishakh, some from the second week and some from the third. The situation is getting haphazard. Nobody has understood why to wait until the 21st of Baishakh to start school, as schools, parents and students are all ready and everything is perfect too.

Reform 

Reform in education is a must but the government decisions seem to be abrupt; because of this, there arise many confusions. The transition period for everything should be as smooth as possible but the stakeholders of school education have found this quite harsh. If we take an example from Australia, this point will be much clearer. Realising the adverse effects, the Australian government decided to ban some of the social media platforms for users under 16 years old. For this, a Bill was passed in 2024 and it came into force only in 2025. This indicates that people need a substantial amount of time to shift from one situation to another so that their transition will not be problematic. 

In contrast, the Ministry of Education in Nepal has issued nine directives for immediate implementation. This sounds over-ambitious. There is a popular idiom in English that says 'one step at a time,' meaning you do just a little at a time so that you can break down your complex tasks into manageable and simpler ones to complete them easily. This way, you will maximise chances to achieve your goals. We should not forget that sometimes haste makes waste.

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, April 17, 2026 ) 

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On Scrapping Of Primary Level Exams

 The new government under Prime Minister Balendra Shah or Balen has released its 100-point action plan, where different schemes are listed to be completed within 100 days. These actions are related to various fields and one of them is education. Among others, it highlights abolishing the formal examination system from the coming academic session for students in grades 1 to 5. The plan claims this will reduce academic pressure on young learners, which is absolutely true. However, there are a lot of reservations.

While I was reading the news, I started to reflect on my PhD days. When I first took my son to get admission in a primary school in Victoria, Australia, in 2008, he was in grade four. The first thing I noticed was that there were no textbooks at all, and secondly, they would not give formal examinations to primary level students. This kind of education system made me worried, as these two were the key elements of our education system. The other parents who had newly arrived in Australia, particularly from Asian countries, also shared the same feeling. 

Examination system

These parental worries led me to conduct my PhD research on how literacy teaching and learning happen in primary schools in Victoria, Australia. This research drew a lot of invaluable information related to continuous learning and assessment. There is no doubt that the traditional examination system encourages students' rote learning and it does not seem to be suitable in today's world. Unfortunately, almost all of the Nepali parents and teachers have come from a background of the traditional education system, which considers a formal examination as the most effective way to assess learning outcomes.

The role of teachers is very important in implementing the things suggested by policymakers. For this, they must be qualified enough, well-trained and well-informed. The major questions here are: Are the teachers who teach in grades 1 to 5 capable of using the alternative evaluation system confidently? Do they have access to the resource materials that they need? Have they received enough training for this? Is continuous guidance available to them?  The other chief stakeholder of education is parents. So, how will they take the governmental decision to abolish all sorts of internal examinations? Were they consulted before making the decision? Will they accept this normally? Such questions automatically arise in someone's mind when it comes to trying something new.

Well, in principle, it is said that the formal examinations have already been abolished in grades 1 to 3. But what is in practice? Are teachers using the alternative techniques of evaluation in reality? Is there any strong follow-up mechanism? I do not think schools are seriously following the newly introduced system of no formal examinations, but continuous evaluation. In documentation, everything looks fine but on the ground level, the same traditional practice is being continued in most of the contexts. The most challenging part of abolishing internal examinations is its implementation throughout the country. 

In urban areas, it may be possible if the schools try hard but in rural areas where students do not even have proper school buildings, classrooms or furniture, this sounds like a far cry. In such areas, the only resource material teachers have is a textbook and their ultimate evaluation method is formal examinations. I agree that primary level students do not need formal examinations, as they do not measure their real capacities. During this time, they are curious to learn many things. So, they must be exposed to different subject areas, which can make their learning interesting and enjoyable. In such a learning environment, gradually, teachers can identify students' favourite subject areas, their talents or their inclinations. This helps teachers to encourage students to hone their strengths.

Even if this is the case, in the context of Nepal, introducing the new evaluation system abruptly may not achieve the expected results. There are several issues to address before implementing something new in classrooms. First of all, there must be an extensive research study including all the stakeholders, such as teachers, parents, students, curriculum designers or textbook writers and it must cover participants from all geographical regions. Their views guide the government to make wise decisions. Secondly, the concerned teachers must be trained in alternative ways of assessment and they must be provided with continuous guidance and support. 

Sufficient resources 

The schools must have sufficient resource materials; only having a textbook as their instructional material, teachers cannot implement an alternative evaluation system in their class. Among all, the most important factor is a regular and strong follow-up mechanism. The usual practice of teacher training in Nepal has seemed to be merely a formality so far. Teachers participate in such training programmes only for a salary increment, but not to bring positive changes in their teaching methods. They may be reluctant to use whatever they have learned due to the lack of follow-up. If they had been followed up regularly the situation of community schools would have improved a lot. 

It is a natural phenomenon to resist something new in the beginning but if you cannot get away from it, you gradually start to accept it. If teachers realise that they will be going to be observed once they complete their training and go back to their classroom, they will obviously use the knowledge, skills or strategies that they have gained. Otherwise, they follow the same traditional method, which they find easy and comfortable. If everything works perfectly, then the abolition of formal paper-and-pencil tests in grades 1 to 5 sounds great. This gives students more room for enjoyable and exploratory learning.  

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, April 3, 2026 ) 

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