Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) lawmaker Khagendra Karna on Monday said that investment of billions of rupees in the education sector had not delivered satisfactory results.
Speaking during a meeting of the House of Representatives, he pointed out that education in community schools is in crisis due to declining student enrollment, a shortage of permanent teachers and systemic irregularities like double enrollment.
Karna reminded the House that people are not receiving quality education in practice even though the constitution guarantees education as a fundamental right.
“Our constitution has established education as a fundamental right. The state has given a constitutional guarantee that basic education will be free and compulsory, and secondary education will be free,” Karna said. “However, the reality is quite different.”
Karna questioned the Ministry of Education and Sports whether returns on the massive investment made in the sector have been satisfactory. “Around 7 million students are enrolled in schools nationwide. The state is spending billions of rupees on them. I want to ask the ministry—what is the result?” he questioned.
He also said the government’s teacher management policy had become a failure. “There are 180,103 teachers in community schools. Among them, only 89,214, or about 49%, are permanent teachers. The remaining 90,889 are under relief grants, private sources, contracts, or other temporary arrangements,” he said.
Karna also said keeping more than half of the teaching positions reliant on temporary and relief teachers while rendering 151,084 license-holders unemployed amounts to playing with the students’ future. He argued that the practice of appointing relief and contract teachers in the past decades, instead of making permanent appointments through the Teachers’ Service Commission, has weakened community schools. “The practice of sidelining qualified candidates to appoint relief and contract teachers based on political connections has weakened community schools,” he said.
Karna also said influential families were enrolling their children in community schools just to claim government benefits and scholarships, while actually sending them to private schools. “Studying in private schools but taking exams through community schools is not just a crime; it is a betrayal to society and the nation,” Karna added.
