The project on Everest National Higher Secondary Schools Rating-Ranking-Awards 2013 gave the New Business Age - Aarthik Abhiyan family an opportunity to know the standards of HS education in Nepal and its best practitioners from a close quarter.

It is truly heartening to see that HS education has spread across the country reasonably well. The entry of the private entrepreneurs and corporate houses in the education sector has evolved quite emphatically since 2000 in Nepal. Along with HSEB based education, Western A-level education has also evolved in the country. And, unlike neighbouring India, Nepal is providing for multiple specializations at the HS level itself: Humanities, Sciences, Commerce, Management, Hotel & Tourism Management. This contributes to early professional orientation of the students.

However, there are several areas that need special care and concern in the country at the earliest.  The community based education or the government funded and controlled education needs to upgrade itself technologically with e-learning and modern teaching tools, and technically with faculty learning to use the same and move to interactive mode of teaching than traditional classroom learning. This sector of school education runs on tax-payers’ money and for the less privileged classes. Their usual lackadaisical approach (though there are some good exceptions) and large-scale political involvement of teachers even at the cost of academics, lead to poverty of education for the children coming from lower income group families.

Also, encouraging corporate houses or private schools to adopt a community school and bring in new technologies for students and training of faculty as corporate social responsibility will be a welcome idea indeed.  As for the private sector schools, in urban Nepal, they are the foundation of HS Education as is obvious during our study. And there are various standards of the same: some with good infra-structure and faculty, some much poorer. What is noteworthy is that there is a new crop of good quality schools that are emerging and they do not shy away from reaching out to their audiences through modern branding and marketing techniques.

What needs to be considered here is that there must be strictly enforceable minimum standards of academics, infra-structure, co-curricular activities, library and teaching resources, campus size and facilities, faculty size and quality etc. Many schools have part time and visiting faculty in a larger number than regular full time teachers which is globally unacceptable.

Also, as in several other nations, including India, private schools should keep a certain percentage of their seats for full and half free admissions, purely for children from economically challenged background only. Adopting a community school in the neighbourhood is another healthy practice. However, we must remember that the revenue of private schools is from the students and their guardians and hence the first responsibility of these schools is to their ‘clients’. Stake-holder satisfaction must surely be ensured first and that cannot be just completing the syllabus and ensuring pass percentage.

The performance of a good school, private or aided, must now move from just classroom teaching and pass percentage, to a much advanced multi-pronged approach. There should be inputs like faculty number and quality, sports and cultural facilities, modern teaching tools and e-learning, coaching for higher professional educational after Plus 2, community outreach, special care for weak students and integrating parents in the system. And there should be output factors like pass percentage and divisions, awards won in sports and ECA activities, collaborations and visits, community impact around the school. All of these leading to the holistic growth of the child committed to knowing, doing and being.