The objectives and targets of the basic learning needs outlined by the framework of action to meet the EFA goals are categorised into six areas. The analyses of the progress are therefore presented under these six headings. The analyses attempt to assess the achievement in terms of the national targets set by the National Development Plans. The six areas of analysis are as follows:

1. Expansion of early childhood programmes and development activities
   [Indicators 1 and 2]
2. Universal access to, and completion of, primary education
   [Indicators 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14]
3. Improvement in learning achievements
   [Indicator 15]
4. Reduction of the adult illiteracy rate and gender disparity in education
   [Indicators 16, 17 and 18]
5. Expansion of basic education and life skills for youths and adults
6. Media mobilisation for increased acquisition of the knowledge, skills and values required for better living and sustainable development

In early 1990s, no explicit targets were set for early childhood programmes and development activities. There was some reference to this aspect of education in the Eighth Plan (1992-1997). The Ninth Plan set explicit targets for early childhood development (ECD), although they were limited to the opening of a certain number of ECD centres in the country. The target is 10,000 ECD centres. However, the Ninth Plan has not made any reference to the access or participation of a certain proportion of children of the relevant age group in such activities. Consequently, indicators 1 and 2 were not available in 1991 and 1995. They are still not in the national information system.

As the national educational information system does not report the status of ECD, the data presented in Table 10 were obtained from surveys of 4,168 schools in 23 districts. These surveys were conducted by the Basic and Primary Education Project (BPEP I).

As can be seen from the above table, the gross enrolment ratio of ECD is 8.07. Since the survey area does not include Kathmandu Valley and other major city areas, it is likely that the figures would be higher than the percentage of new entrants to Grade 1 with early childhood education (13.47).

As can be seen from the above table, more boys tend to have access to ECD than girls. There also region-wise variation in the GER in ECD, as the following Figure 3 shows.

Although there is a higher level of enrolment in the Central Region than other regions, the gross enrolment ratio in this region is smaller than that of the Far Western and Western Regions. Although the total enrolment is smallest in the Far Western Region, the gross enrolment in this region is the highest.

The number of new entrants to Grade 1 is slightly higher for boys than for girls. There is a very large difference between private and public schools, in favour of private schools.

The table shows that a greater proportion of private school-goers have ECD experience than their counterparts attending public schools.

In line with the goals of NPA and the targets of the Eighth Plan and the Ninth Plan, the following major steps have been undertaken by the government for early childhood development:

Institutionalised early childhood development in Nepal can be traced to the decades following the development of primary education. The expansion of the ECD centres has not taken place on a scale comparable to primary education. Nevertheless, in Nepal various models of ECD are found operating:

1. Balmandirs
2. School-initiated provisions for under-age children
3. Shishu Kakshyas of BPEP
4. Community-based ECD centres
5. Privately-run nurseries, kindergartens and day-care centres

6. Welfare programmes

In Nepal, Balmandirs were the early approaches by the government to address the needs of pre-school age children. Balmandirs were established in the 1970s at the district level to provide play-school environments for young children. However, the capacities of the Balmandirs were very limited–each Balmandir caters to about 50 children in the district centres, and the total capacity of all Balmandirs is about 3,750.

Although primary school regulations require that a child should be six years old in order to enroll in Grade 1, many instances of primary schools have been found where a large number of children below that age have been admitted to Grade 1. This situation has arisen because of the lack of other provisions for pre-school-age children. The situation is likely to remain for some years to come. In most of the cases where younger children are admitted to Grade 1, the children stay in the school for two years or more. Some schools have formed what they call children's classes.

This programme was started in 1992 with a view to addressing the problem of under-age children accompanying their siblings in Grade1. Shishu Kakshyas are attached to primary schools and are mostly run as preparatory classes for Grade 1. By 1997, 1,038 Shishu Kakshyas were established under BPEP phase I.

During the Ninth Plan period, 10,000 ECD centres will be established. BPEP phase II intends to establish 7,000 ECD centres. The remaining 3,000 centres will be established with the participation of communities and NGOs. These ECD centres will be managed and run by communities and will be different and separated from primary schools.

In 1992, the Research Centre for Educational Innovation and Development (CERID) undertook a three-year innovative and experimental research project entitled Pre-school Education for Better Nutrition. This project was an integrated programme that had adopted the basic principles of early childhood development. Likewise, the home-based child-care programme, known as Entry-Point, also addressed children below three years of age. Those programmes were developed by Seto Guras National Child Developmental Services and were implemented mainly by the Production Credit for Rural Women (PCRW) Project and the Small Farmer Development Project (SFDP) in their project districts.

In 1995, there were 95 child-care centres established under PCRW. The child-care centres established under the PCRW project of the Ministry of Local Development and under SFDP of the Agricultural Development Bank have been launched with the objective of helping the mothers to do productive jobs by freeing them from continuously attending their children.

Most of these home-based programmes have short-term training courses for facilitators, typically of two weeks' duration. In most cases, a large proportion of the financial requirement for the operation of the programmes is shared by the respective projects or organisations. Most of the organisations also raise matching funds from the parents in the form of monthly fees.

Almost all of the 4,004 private schools in Nepal have pre-primary nursery and kindergarten classes. Most of these private schools have three sections: nursery, Lower KG and Upper KG. Although data on the pre-school programmes of private schools are not available, an estimate based on 30 children per section would come to about 360,000 enrolled children.

Besides the three major streams of ECD services, some welfare organisations are also running ECD centres, mainly for orphans and destitute children. Programmes of this type are conducted in particular by philanthropic organisations like the Nepal Children's Organisation, SOS Children's Villages, UCEP and Paropkar. The Children Welfare Co-ordination Committee under the National Social Service Co-ordination Committee monitors and co-ordinates the activities of these organisations.

The Pre-primary Education Unit in the Curriculum Development Centre has developed a pre-primary curriculum. It has conducted a number of training activities for pre-primary teachers. Currently, in 1999, an Early Childhood Development Section was established under the Department of Education to look after the ECD development needs in the country.

BPEP has developed a teachers guide for pre-primary teachers, as well as a pre-primary curriculum. The BPEP has been conducting regular training of trainers and training of teachers involved in pre-primary education programmes. The project has also been conducting parental awareness activities using posters and booklets.

UNICEF Nepal has been providing continuous support for the development of the ECD concept and various forms of programmes. The Interactive Radio Programme for ECD is a relatively new development and is implemented by UNICEF in collaboration with Radio Nepal. UNICEF has also provided resource kits for ECD classes. UNICEF is also working with the Ministry of Health to prevent disease and malnutrition among children.

Similarly, many INGOs such as the Save the Children Alliance, Plan International, Educate the Children, Redd Barna and SOS have been conducting several programmes for the development of ECD in Nepal.

Four sets of indicators were developed to evaluate the accomplishment of EFA targets of access to and completion of primary education. The indicators are categorised under access, expenditure, teacher provision and internal efficiency.

Two major rates namely, intake rate in Grade 1 and enrollment rate in primary education (Grades 1 to 5), have been included as indicators of children's access to primary education. Both these rates have been further divided into gross and net values.

Table 5 shows the magnitude of access to and participation in primary education in the country. Data for indicators like gross intake, net intake and net enrollment rates are unavailable for early 1990s. The wide gap in gross and net intake rate in Grade 1 indicates that both under-age and over-age children are enrolled in Grade 1. This is also true for other grades of primary schools.

The high GER clearly suggests that the primary school system in the country has expanded to a considerable degree and has the capacity to absorb a large number of children. However, about one-third of the total primary school-going age children still remain outside the formal system of primary education. Studies and observations show that formal primary education has yet to attract children from disadvantaged communities.

Access-related and participation-related data were analysed by gender and Development Region as well. This analysis reveals that the participation of girls is lower than that of boys. It is also reveals that problems of low participation in primary education are widespread in the Far Western Region of the country. Analysis of specific indicators by gender and region are presented in the following tables and figures.

Table 6 and Figure 2 indicate a considerable gap between the intake rates of boys and girls in Grade 1. However, there is not much difference in the gender gap between gross and net intake rates (gender parity indices for gross and net intake rates are 0.83 and 0.81 respectively).

There are distinct variations in the intake rates of the five Development Regions, as indicated by Table 7 and Figure 3. The Central Development Region has the highest NIR, whereas the Far Western Development Region has the lowest. However, it is also observed that the rank positions of regions vary by type of intake rate, either gross and net.

The gross enrolment rate has increased slowly (from 114.4 to 122.1) over the first seven years of 1990s—on an average of addition of 1% every year (Table 8). However, a distinct difference in the growth rate can be observed for boys and girls. The GER for boys has remained almost at the same level over these seven years, whereas a higher rate of increase is visible in the case of girls. This is due to an increased emphasis on girls' education. On the other hand, the boys' rate was already very high (140.9) in 1991 and it has almost stabilised. Now the rate should start declining. On the average, due to an increase in girls' participation, the GER is still increasing in Nepal.

Table 9 also indicates the presence of a distinct gap between boys and girls in the NER as well. The NER for boys in the year 1997 was around 80, whereas that for girls was only around 60. The gap between boys and girls in both the GER and NER are almost the same—a gender parity index of 74 for GER and 76 for NER in 1997.

An analysis of the GER and NER by Development Region reveals a gap of about 20 points between the regions with the highest (Western) and the lowest (Far Western) NER (see Table 10). Unlike intake rates, the positions of regions do not vary by type of enrollment, gross or net.

In sum, analyses of access-related indicators reveal a slow increase in the rate of participation of children in primary education. The rate for girls is a little faster than that of boys. Moreover, a wide gap exists among various regions in terms of children's enrollment. Wider gaps between the gross and net enrollment rates and between the gross and net intake rates indicate the increase in participation of over-age (due to various social, economic, health and nutrition factors) as well as under-age children in the primary school system.