Education for All
Norway is supporting the Government of Nepal’s current Education for All (EFA) 2004-2009 sector programme which is a comprehensive primary education intervention as part of Nepal’s EFA National Plan of Action (NPA) (2001-2015). The Ministry of Education aims to achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the EFA goals by introducing systemic improvements in service delivery and planning mechanisms. EFA builds on the previous education intervention Basic and Primary Education Programme (BPEP II) also with Norwegian funding.
Nepal’s EFA programme is drawing upon support from pooling partners, non-pooling partners and national as well as international NGOs and local communities. Norway together with Denmark, DFID, Finland, the World Bank, AusAID, EC, UNICEF and the Asian Development Bank are coordinating their support for the programme through a joint financing arrangement (JFA) for sector budget support to EFA.
The EFA programme will end in July 2009, and is to be followed by the School Sector Reform programme. A Joint Evaluation of EFA 2004-09 in Nepal was presented in March 2009.
The School Sector Reform
The School Sector Reform Core Document (2008) is a result of a national initiative and a product of local efforts. The reform programme will aim to consolidate the gains made under EFA and meet access, equity and quality goals for primary schooling while simultaneously focusing on expanding the coverage of the school sector. The programme has a sector wide approach which includes early childhood development and education and also intends to make schooling more relevant to the needs of early school leavers by piloting vocational streams at the post-basic level. A key aspect of the program is its focus on developing quality assurance mechanisms, and improving the accountability framework for the delivery of key services. The overarching goal is to ensure learners’ equitable access to quality education, change the school structure, moving from grade 1-5 to a grade 1-8 system, and to enhance institutional and organisational and human capacity.
The School Sector Reform Plan 2009 -2015 (February 2009) presents policies, strategic options and implementation strategies to meet issues and challenges identified, such as rising expectations, integrating basic and secondary levels, improving quality and relevance, ensuring inclusive participation, decentralising education management and financing.
Quality education and times of conflict
The development of “new Nepal” and the fragile political situation is still a challenge for the education sector. However, during the years of conflict, the education sector was able to make considerable progress and maintained delivery of services in most parts of the country. In addition to the national education programme, Norway also supports Save the Children and UNICEF’s programs to strengthen the governance aspects of service delivery and to improve quality in education by promoting protective environments in schools and child friendly learning methods. Their interventions also include mitigation of impact of disaster and conflict, as well as opportunities for obtaining basic education and skills to children who are out of school. Both agencies have a strong focus on social inclusion and reaching vulnerable groups.
Some indicators on progress under EFA 2004-09 :
- Overall Primary Enrolment Numbers have increased markedly 4,025,692 to 4,782,313, an increase of 19%.
- Net Intake Rate (NIR) at Grade 1 has increased steadily and now 83% of children are enrolling in school at the right age.
- Primary Net Enrolment Rate (NER) has increased considerably from 83.5 in 2003 to 91.9 in 2008.
- Gross Intake Rate at Grade 1 has grown markedly from 126% to 148% in the five years of the EFA programme, whilst Primary Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) has remained high for boys and girls. These figures suggest that there continues to be substantial under- and over-age enrolment.
- The Gender Parity Index (GPI) for all types of primary school has risen from 0.83 in 2003 to 0.98 in 2008. The GPI for the primary NER shows a steady improvement from 0.87 in 2003 to 0.97 in 2008.
- Enrolment of Dalits has increased substantially and there are now almost one million Dalits in school. GPI for Dalits is comparably with the general trends.
- Enrolment of Janajatis has, likewise, increased substanitally from less than one million to almost 2 million in 5 years, with near gender parity.
- Enrolment of Other Disadvantaged Children/ Out of School Children A calculation based on the NER suggests that 8.1% of primary age children remain out-of-school. In addition, however, there are the children who are officially enroled but have dropped out, or are failing to attend regularly.
- Survival Rate to Grade Five and Transition to Lower Secondary. Primary survival rates have not shown a consistent improvement and drop-out, of both girls and boys, remains a key concern. There are considerable variation across Districts. Many children who do complete Grade 5 do not continue into Lower Secondary, at which point gender and socio-economic gaps widen markedly.
- Repetition Rates have decreased by 9 percentage points over the past decade but by only 3-4 percentage points since 2005. They continue to be higher for Grade 1, for which they have fallen from 35% to just under 30%. Rates overall do not vary significantly for girls and boys.
- Enrolment in ECD Programmes: The proportion of students in Grade 1 that have previously had some experince of an ECD programme has risen substantialy from 11% in the first year of the EFA Programme to 35% in the present year. There are variations among districts.