Education in Nepal

Education in Nepal




Education in Nepal has only recently been developing and continues to improve. Several international organizations are involved in assisting Nepal with its education system and in educating children in rural areas of the country. Educational development in Nepal is vital to cut-down the poverty rate as well as promoting community development. With this in mind Nepal's government continues to undo the damage the previous governmental regime inflicted on Nepal's education system.

For many years, during the rule of Nepal by the Rana family, education was suppressed. The Rana regime feared a public that was educated. Prior to World War Two however English middle and high schools were established in several villages along with an all-girl's high school in Kathmandu. As Gurkha soldiers returned to the villages having learned to read and write, education became more important to local people. Soon high-caste families would send their children to university who in turn began the anti-Rana sentiment ending the oppressive regime in 1951. Despite the establishment of an education system in Nepal, poorer families could not afford to send their children to school and also wanted their children to work on the farms. Primary education was offered for free by the government as of 1975.



Nepal's education system has been largely based on that of the United States and has received much assistance in forming a curriculum from various NGO's. Primary education runs from grade 1 through 5. Secondary education consists of lower secondary (grade 6 to 8), upper secondary (grade 9 to 10) and higher secondary (grade 11 to 12). Students will receive a School Leaving Certificate after completing grade 10. The streams for higher secondary education are education, science, commerce and humanities after which they receive a Higher Secondary Certificate. Students have the option of attending Basic Technical Schools after grade 5 to be awarded a Training Level Certificate.



10.People of Nepal

Perched on the Southern slopes of the Himalayan Mountains, the Kingdom of Nepal is ethnically diverse. The Nepalese are descendants of three major migrations. These migrations have taken place from India, Tibet, and Central Asia. Among the earliest inhabitants were the Newar of the Kathmandu Valley and aboriginal Tharu in the southern Tarai region. The ancestors of the Brahman and Chetri caste groups came from India, while other ethnic groups trace their origins to Central Asia and Tibet, including the Gurung and Magar in the west, Rai and Limbu in the east, and Sherpa and Bhotia in the north.



In the Tarai, which is a part of the Ganges basin, much of the population is physically and culturally similar to the Indo-Aryan people of northern India. People of Indo-Aryan and Mongoloid stock live in the hill region. The mountainous highlands are sparsely populated. Kathmandu Valley, in the middle hill region, constitutes a small fraction of the nation's area but is the most densely populated, with almost 5% of the population.



Nepal's 2001 census enumerated 103 distinct caste/ethnic groups including an "unidentified group". The caste system of Nepal is rooted in the Hindu religion while the ethnic system is rooted in mutually exclusive origin myths, historical mutual seclusion and the occasional state intervention.