Learning achievement is one of the most important measures of the quality of education. It is also intricately linked to school efficiency because the promotion and repetition rates are directly related to the learning achievements of the students, to which in turn school drop-out can be attributed.

The NPA, Eighth and Ninth Plans have listed several measures for quality enhancement of education. These are presented in the Table 7.

In order to improve the learning achievement of the students, the Ninth Plan envisages setting up a national standard of primary education. A minimum of 180 school-operation days will be made mandatory. Similarly, the minimum regular presence of students and teachers will be fixed. Parents, local agencies and local people will be involved in the formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of programmes in order to make the management and implementation of primary education effective.

BPEP II has set the following levels for achieving the Ninth Plan targets:

BPEP II targets are intended to bring about necessary reforms both in quality of instruction as well as in the evaluation system in order to achieve a 100% pass rate for children of Grades 1 to 3. Similarly, the pass rate of children in Grades 4 and 5 will be raised to 90%. A minimum learning level in Grade 3 and 5 Nepali and Maths will be achieved by 70% of the children.

BPEP II also aims to achieve a daily attendance rate of 90% for students and 80% for teachers. Instructional time-on-task will be raised to 90%, which will be spent by teachers and children on focused learning tasks. This will include continuous assessment as an integral part of teaching

Multipronged approaches taken in BPEP for the improvement of learning achievements include improvement in teacher training, curriculum, textbooks, instructions and classroom environments.

Curriculum development is taking on a new dimension after the completion of BPEP
phase I: the target for BPEP phase II includes implementation of continuous assessment instead of the current practice of annual examinations for evaluating the students' performance for grade promotion. Liberal promotion of students in primary grades will be adopted, beginning from Grades 1 to 3. The school curriculum will be revised to make classroom practices more interactive and student-centred. The quality of teaching/learning materials, including textbooks, will be improved.

Teacher training provision will be expanded through:

1. recurrent cluster-based teacher training;

2. long-term in-service teacher training (2.5 months x 4); and

3. short-term recurrent teacher training.

All the primary-level teachers will be provided a minimum of 10 days of classroom-based training per annum.

The role of Headmaster as a supervisor in the school will be strengthened. Similarly, the role of SMC in the development of overall school environment will be enhanced.

2.5 TARGETS AND GOALS FOR THE REDUCTION OF ILLITERACY AND GENDER DISPARITY IN LITERACY

The 1991 census showed a literacy rate of 39.7% for the age group of six years and above. The female literacy rate for this age group was 25%. In 1991, the literacy rate for adults of the 18+ age group was 32%, and the female adult literacy rate was 18%. The rural village population constitutes most of the illiterates in Nepal. The population consists of both adults and school-age children who could not join school. Therefore the National Plan of Action as well as the National Development Plans have emphasised the need for literacy education for both adults and out-of-school children. Following are the literacy targets set by the NPA, the Eighth Plan and the Ninth Plan for the 6+ age group of children.

In the Eighth Plan period, in order to attain the set target of 60% literacy, there was an estimated need to make 1.4 million illiterate persons literate. In the Ninth Plan, there was target to provide effective literacy training to 3,216,000 illiterate adults and 784,000 out-of-school children in order to make them literate. Nepal intends to achieve 100% literacy for the population of 6+ years by the end of the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012).

The literacy rate in Nepal until recently has been calculated for the population of 6+ years of age. The programme visualisation for enhancing the literacy percentage therefore focuses on entire groups under this age, and age-specific and community-specific literacy programmes are being developed and implemented. Following are some of the national-level programmes and their targets towards achieving the overall targets and goals set by the NPA, the Eighth Plan and the Ninth Plan.

Out-of-School Education Programme (OSP)

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of 8-14 year children who were out of school numbered 4,497,268 of whom 45% were illiterate. By 2001, the illiteracy among this target group is expected to be reduced to 34%. However, there will be still need to address OSP for about 1,924,754 people because of the expansion of the population, as the following table shows.

According to the above projection there were about two million (2040740) illiterates among the children of the 8-to-14-year group in 1991. Although the illiterate percentage is expected to decrease by 2001, the total illiterate population of this age group will be still close to two million (1925,344). Out-of-School Programmes (OSP) are run to address the basic education needs of the children.

The major objectives of OSP are:

to provide accelerated non-formal basic education to those primary-school-age children who could not join primary schools and those who have dropped out of school;

to enhance the school enrollment rate by motivating basic-level (OSP I) completers to enter formal schools;

to reduce gender disparity in literacy by increasing the school enrollment of girls;

to provide functional education in order to provide the knowledge and necessary skills for undertaking income-generating activities.

One of the major objectives of OSP is to bring the OSP class completers into formal schooling. Provision has been made to enroll OSP class completers in Grade 3. Shikshya Sadan for boys and girls and Chelibeti for girls are two popular OSPs.

The government aims to run different adult education programmes to address the needs of adult illiterates of the age group 15 to 45 years. The objectives of the education programmes for this age group are to impart literacy skills as well as basic knowledge and skills in the areas of health and sanitation, water usage, environmental protection, afforestation, agriculture, and income generation.

The adult literacy programmes aim to run activities in at least two phases: to impart basic literacy and skills; and to help adults get involved in income-generating activities, community service, co-operatives, health and family planning. The latter phase is often called a post-literacy programme. Post-literacy programmes are also considered important to deepen and sustain the literacy skills acquired in the first phase.

The Women's Education Section of the Ministry of Education aims to enhance adult female literacy through special programmes. Accordingly, it has been running special functional literacy programmes for women of 15 to 35 years of age, which are focused on child-care, heath, agriculture, sewing, weaving etc.

The Ninth Plan identifies literacy campaigns one of the major strategies to achieve the targets it has set. Accordingly, phase-wise literacy campaigns have been scheduled to cover all parts of the country, with special priority for rural areas and disadvantaged communities.

Different programmes are being conducted to make primary education accessible to girls and to provide functional education for adult females. The Ninth Plan aims to provide scholarships for all girl students of 10 remote districts, and girls' scholarship quotas in the remaining 65 districts. Altogether, 162,404 girl students will benefit from the scholarship programme in the plan period. There is a similar programme for disadvantaged communities. Provision of at least one female teacher in every school, preference for female teachers to take part in training, and school-based incentive programmes for girls are some of the other measures to expand girls' enrollment in primary school. Activities of the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) to remove gender and community disparities reflected in the curriculum, textbooks and teacher training manuals is another important step in this direction.

The monitoring and evaluation system will be systematised in order to conduct women's education programmes effectively. Local agencies will be mobilised for the development and publicity of women's education programmes.

The Ninth Plan aims to institutionalise the training of the facilitators and the other people involved in NFE activities. Information regarding the literacy situation will be improved. Literacy mapping will be conducted to reflect the literacy situation.

NGOs as well as community-based organisations are also playing a very significant role towards expanding adult literacy. The Ninth Plan has also focused the need for co-ordination of GOs working in this area with NGOs, INGOs and CBOs. For this a NFE council represented by NGOs, INGOs and the government has already been working. Similarly, a NFE centre has been established by the ministry of education for undertaking various research and innovation activities in this area.

2.6 TARGETS AND GOALS FOR LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING FOR YOUTHS

One of the important endeavours of Nepal has been to provide contemporary knowledge and skills needed for better living in the ever-changing world. In this regard, the Eighth and the Ninth Plans have clearly emphasised the mobilisation of all aspects of education, including formal education, continuing education, the open learning system and vocational education. The goals of the National Plan of Action, the Eighth Plan and the Ninth Plan are given in the following table:

Eighth Five Year Plan objectives focused on utilising education as a means of enhancing the capabilities of people as producers. The Eighth Plan emphasised"

a. increased technical and vocational training facilities; and

b. making the curriculum more relevant to the actual needs of the economy, e.g., emphasising agriculture, environment, health, nutrition, inculcation of the work ethic, etc.

Based on the experiences of the Eighth Plan period, the Ninth Plan emphasised the need to make skills training and vocational education more flexible and more in accordance with market needs. It also emphasised the need to enhance the involvement of private sectors in running skills training and vocational education programmes.

Life skills are incorporated into the school curriculum in different forms at various levels. At the primary level, it is in the form of making the children aware of the surrounding environment and better ways to living. At the secondary level, it is in the form of work ethics and orientation to various areas of skills training and vocational education. Vocational education is offered as an optional subject at the secondary level.

The Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) was formed in 1989 to formulate policies, ensure quality monitoring and provide services to facilitate technical education and vocational programmes all over the country. The council has set up nine technical schools to cover the needs of all the regions of the country. The target is to expand the number to 20 by the turn of the century. Soon after the government made a policy of promoting the private sector in technical education, 118 technical schools were opened by private enterprises in affiliation with CTEVT. These private technical schools run short-term technical courses in various areas.

During the Eighth Plan period, 2,595 long-term training courses and 2,034 short-term training courses were envisaged under CTEVT. The Ninth Plan period envisages 5,000 long-term training courses and 20,000 short-term training courses.

Besides CTEVT, there are various specific skills-training programmes conducted by various ministries such as the Ministries of Education, Labour, Women and Social Welfare, Industries, Communications, Tourism and Water Resources. The following is a list of targets set by the various ministries for the fiscal year 1998/99.

His Majesty's Government formed a committee for the development of employment in 1997 to provide consultative help to the government to formulate employment policies and programmes, to explore employment areas within the country as well as abroad, to develop relevant training suitable to the employment possibilities, to develop statistics on the employment situation, and to co-ordinate among the employment-related training providers. Following is the five-year employment training projection during the Ninth Plan period prepared by the committee for the VDC, municipality and national levels.

The country's need of basic and middle-level skilled manpower for different development programmes will be fulfilled by producing manpower at the local level. In order to conduct technical training and vocational education programmes, physical and economic resources will be mobilised at the local level for the establishment of training centres. Improvements will be conducted to make technical schools effective and appropriate to their investment. There will be co-ordination between governmental and non-governmental technical and vocational training organisations. The organisations will be standardised and the training accredited. High-level centres that conduct training in the private sector will be provided with technical assistance.

Steps will be taken to establish polytechnic schools in order to produce middle-level manpower required at the local level. Internal and external resources will be mobilised to run this type of school. Community development and vocational training centres will be expanded. Training will be provided to the trainers in order to develop and expand technical education.

2.7 TARGETS AND GOALS FOR MEDIA MOBILISATION

The government of Nepal has been promoting mass media for raising awareness of the people and to give educational messages and information. Mass media are also mobilised for conducting special training programmes. In these various activities, the major contributors are the Distance Education Centre, the Ministry of Education, Radio Nepal, Nepal Television, Gorkha Patra Sansthan, several independent newspapers and magazines, the Nepal Press Institute, FM radio stations, journalists associations and NGOs. The government plans to enhance the role of various media partners in promoting social and family values and social understanding. In this line, the government has recently promulgated the National Broadcasting Act to facilitate the development of independent FM stations and the mobilisation of radio and TV as alternative channels of continuing education.

During the Ninth Plan, there will be provision of accredited in-service training for primary school teachers through distance education and other media. Radio and television programmes on several subjects, including agriculture, health, primary education, general information, interaction forums and social advocacy, will be developed and broadcast regularly. Appropriate policies will be developed for an information management system and the development of libraries for educational communication and information.