Its a matter of great pleasure to hear that United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) South Asia's Education for All (EFA) mid-term policy review conference kicked off in Kathmandu Monday. I also came to know that the four-day conference will review existing policies, identify policy gaps and devise policies and action plans to achieve the EFA goals.
Of course, EFA is a commitment made by the countries and partners in 1990s to deliver
quality education for all children, youth and adults by 2015. On this special occassion I would like to put forward some of my points which I think are considerable.
According to Department of Education, the out of school children is 11% and the primary cycle completion rate is 63%. The study of flash report 2063, the drop out of grade one in Dhanusha is 32% which is 29% in national level. It means if 100 children enroll in grade one, 68 children enrol in grade two. Among that 68 children only 63% complete primary education i.e. 41 children complete primary education. This statistics must be reviewed in light of out of school children that leave school in each grade.
Our defination and practice of quality education is pass rate in the final examination of each grade. Our practice is, if there are 90 students in grade nine, we pass only 60 students.
Among those 60 students, 30 students are stopped at test examination
and only 30 students appear in SLC examination. Among the 30 students,
20 pass in first division and rest in second and third division and we
say my school achieved 100% result. We provide quality education. But
what we miss in the shadow is 66% children. Have we ever thought of
this??? Or we just ignore this fact? This business must be stopped.
Focus in Grade One instead of SLC result
Government has introduced liberal promotion up to grade seven based on
continuous assessment system (CAS). But how many of us (the teachers
and schools) follow it? School and teachers have ready made answers
and the answer is, the number of student is huge and it is not
possible. The government has also given another solution of remedial
classes to the poor student. Again the teachers have another readymade
answer and the answer is teachers are insufficient. We are all aware
that many of us recommend coaching and tuition when a child is going
to appear SLC exam. But, a common question to all; do we refer this to
grade one child? Do parents recommend their grade one children go to
extra classes in the morning or evening? Many of the parents including
we feel that expense to education especially in lower grades is a
waste rather than an investment.
Why focus in Grade One?
1. Right based approach: Grade one is often neglected. Resources are
used for upper grades. The schools use grade one data to draw resources but use for upper grade. We know that 30% of the children reside in grade one where as the class one is given no classroom, furniture and teacher because they can not speak nor they can demand. They are vulnerable and it's our duty to preserve their rights to
education.
2. Foundation of quality education: If you want to make your home
strong, the base of your home must be strong which we call the
foundation. Similarly, grade one is base for the formal education. If
a child achieves all the learning achievements at grade one, study for
him at grade two becomes easier. This continues for each and every
grade. This is also the foundation of quality of education.
3. It is their first experience, pay attention to them: Formal
education starts from grade one. So grade one must be welcoming. What
you do when you are in your relative's home as a guest and s/he does
not pay attention to you? Of course, you decide to leave that home
early and you think twice before coming to that home again. Does this
do not apply to the children? 32% of the children that enroll in grade
one leave school before completing a year. So, what counts is the
attention. School must be child friendly.
4. It promotes equity: Both girls and boys are sent in school. In Nepal the education to girls has a tremendous demand. Even the poor parents have send their children to school. The welcome to school program proved it. The traditional mindset that poor parents do not send their children to school has failed. If we fail to catch this momentum, this trend of sending girls to school will take long time.
5. It also acclerates MDGs: One of the MDGs is EFA. EFA is a commitment made by the countries and partners in 1990s to deliver quality education for all children, youth and adults by 2015. But, if we do not start it from Grade One, the achievement is almost impossible. More children will be dropping out from grade one and the same cycle will be repeating. We must ensure that any child that is of 6 years must be in school.
Dhurba Shrestha
| 
