Education Minister of Nepal

It has not been long, since the education system of Nepal evolved, developed, and became available to locals. During the Rana era, the Rana family made sure that the locals were deprived of public schooling and ensured that the local people remained illiterate. On the other hand, the Ranas made sure that their children were getting all the qualifications and academics required for the secured governmental position. Their rule came to an end in 2007 and democracy evolved, which brought in a new hope to the learning system of the nation.

This concludes that the history of learning within the nation was formally started for normal people 74 years ago, and schools and colleges were continuously established by both government and private institutions, since then. However, there was a random establishment of such institutions everywhere and nobody looked after the operational functions, resources required, and the type of curricula provided. There was no foundation, or main head that would look after the curriculum development system then. Then as the governmental bodies started forming, ministers of different sectors were formed. The minister of education was also formed by the President among the members of the federal parliament, upon being recommended by the Prime Minister. 

List of First Ministers

Sharp at 3 P.M. on Falgun 7, 2007, King Tribhuvan held a seminar and announced the names of 10 ministers until the constitution came into effect. Along with this, the King also stated that the people in power should be the ones elected by the citizen of the nation, themselves. The list of the first 10 councils of Ministers of the Nation, alongside their roles, is presented below;

1. Sri Nripa Jung Rana, as the Education Minister

2, Sri Babar Shamsher, as the Defense Minister

3. Sri B P Koirala. as the Home Minister

4. Sri Bharat Mani Sharma, as the Food and Agriculture Minister

5, Sri Subarna Shamsher, as the Finance Minister

6. Sri Yogna Bahadur Basnet, as the Minister for Health and Local self-government

7. Sri Chudaraj Shamsher, as the Forestry Minister

8. Sri Bhadrakali Mishra, as the Transport Minister

9. Sri Ganesh Man Singh, as the Industry and Commerce Minister 

10. Sri Teen Maharaja Mohan Shamsher, as the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister

First Male Candidate

Nirpa Jung Rana was the first Educational Minister of Nepal and was elected as soon as Nepal became a democratic nation.  

First Female Candidate

Renu Kumari Yadav was the first female education minister, elected in 2065 B.S. 

List of all the minister for education appointed from 2007 B.S. till date;

Quick History

Established as the Ministry of Education (MoE) in 2007 (1951 AD), the department officially and strategically started working after 1953 as they started examining the system properly. For this, they appointed 56 members and started working for the National Education Planning Commission, which was established to look after the preparation and implementation of national universal academics and facilitate proper learning in the nation. This commission was formed by the Government of Nepal, under the recommendation of the Education Board. 

Results from the National Education Planning Commission

The Commission worked under the Educational Ministry for more than a year to come up with a strategic management guide for Administration, Syllabus formation, and Teacher’s Training. This strategic approach was the foundation pillar for the modern academic system of the nation. It took almost 20 years to establish a proper baseline of learning, and hence there was no advancement in the curriculum until the 1970s. The system and the department only focused on forming a proper structure, until then. 

Nationalizing the System

As the Panchayat era (1961 to 1990) evolved everywhere, the Ministry of Education centralized and was committed to providing everyone access to academic qualifications. At that period, although more people were provided with access to academic institutions, it seemed that the focus was to improve qualitative academics and not qualitative academics. 

Renaming 

With the end of the Panchayat System, the focus was again on the qualitative formation of the learning system within the nation. With continuous improvement in the system, the MoE was renamed as MoES, the Ministry of Education and Sports in 2002, which did not last long and was again renamed back to the original MoE in 2008. Again, after 10 years, the department was again renamed and Science and Technology were added to the earlier name, making it the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MoEST). 

MoEST is the council responsible for ensuring that students and learners are provided with quality education, and it works for the development of education and overall academic structure. The main office is located at Singha Durbar, Kathmandu. This body of education ministry has the sole responsibility to look after the entire education policies, be it higher education, education abroad, or a bachelor’s degree. Hence, it is solely accountable for formulating educational policies and plans. In fact, as per the constitution of Nepal, Education is classified as the basic right of all Nepalese. 

What does MoEST do?

Presently known as the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MoEST), some of the department’s major roles are as follows:

1. Strategies and regulations for education across the nation are created
2. Proper execution, regulation, and oversight of the regulations by the relevant departments and their affiliates are done, which are all housed under the Ministry
3. Annual program preparation alongside budgeting is provided to the Ministry of Finance and National Planning Commission.
4. The program is prepared after thorough discussion with all the local as well as regional functioning departments. 
5. Regular updates, official governmental or legal notices, results, and scholarship details are provided to the public. 
6. Monitoring prepared reports related to academics is analyzed and updated. 

Some of the bodies under MoEST

1. Department of Education (DoE): Established in 1999, its main function is to monitor the policy formulation, and implementation in terms of primary, secondary, and education projects.
2. Center from Education and Human Resource Development (CEHRD): Formulation and implementation of created strategic ideas, all over the nation, through various institutions under it. 
3. National Examination Board (NEB): Responsible for conducting secondary exam (SEE), and Higher secondary (11 and 12) exams. Along with this, the NEB is responsible for other educational events like scholarship programs, approving affiliation, and supervising secondary and higher secondary level students.
4. Curriculum Development Center (CDC); Responsible for creating a strategic foundation of all the instructional materials, books, and other curricula required for any student to meet the national educational goals. 

MoEST’s Organizational Structure

Currently, there are seven major bodies working together under different programs initiated for looking after the overall learning system, in terms of monitoring the system. 

Present Ministry of Education, Science and Technology

The newly appointed minister for education is Bidya Bhattarai, who was appointed in the position on Ashar 31, 2081. Before getting this post and position to work in, she had a little history in politics. She started her journey in politics when she joined the student movement of 2046 BS. After that, she also worked in ANNFSU (All Nepal National Free Students Union), as the chief of the women’s department in 2050 B.S. Bhattarai has mentioned that one of the most important things to her in the present scenario, is to make a new educational act when assuming the office at Singha Durbar. As per the recent article published by Rastriya Samachar Samiti, Bhattarai has mentioned that the bill designed for the creation of the Education Act would be forwarded soon. She further mentions retrieving the Nepali citizens that are in a foreign land for which she would appoint experts to create strategies to retain the products of Nepali university, in the nation itself. Emphasizing the governmental institutions of the nation, Bhattarai has formed a committee for the sole purpose of separating the budget for community schools, for the upcoming fiscal year. 

Who is Bidhya Bhattarai?

Bhattarai is the wife of Rabindra Adhikari, who was the tourism minister of the nation. Minister Adhikari died in a helicopter crash that happened 6 years back, in 2075 BS. 

Former Education Minister 

Meanwhile, the former minister was Sumana Shrestha, appointed in 2080, representing the Rashtriya Swantantra Party, under the governance of Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Apart from that, she has also been a member of the Education, Health, and Information Technology Committee of the House of Representatives. She further has been a Central Committee member and has also served as the chairperson of the Education department, there. 

When she was in the chair, she made tremendous decisions, one of which was to punish teachers involved in party politics. This decision created a huge impact on the overall nation’s politics to the point that even the opposition parties united together to be against Minister Shrestha and her decisions. However, this was not any random decision, under the Political Parties Act 2017, teachers, professors, and other government employees are forbidden to engage in politics. However, for this, both the ruling and the opposition parties came together and criticized the move, and mentioned that it would be a waste of time. Furthermore, she was later accused of not having proper knowledge of Nepal’s education sector because of her foreign degree. 

Furthermore, some lawmakers were in support of her as they mentioned that she was on the right track and the country needs more educational ministers like her. Independent lawmaker Amresh Kumar Singh demonstrated his full support towards the former educational minister then and appreciated her work too. While she was doing her job dedicatedly, other ministers complained that she lacked listening skills, believed that she knew everything, and was not accommodative. Such perceptions of other ministers created many controversies. 

let us listen to what the Himalayan Times has to say

A letter was published in 2016 by Himalayan News Service claiming that Nepali students have become victims because of the educational system here. Some of the major queries that they kept forward were for the students who struggled an entire year but in case they could not take their exams due to any serious injuries, accidents, or physically unwell situations, they had to wait for another whole year in order to retake the exam. 

Although the students are allowed to retake exams today, their mental condition, any family problem, or such things would not be considered during the re-take. 

A recent case that happened in Achham

In April 2023, the B Ed first-year examination was held in Achham. However, during the time the result was about to be published, almost a year later, the university published a notice regarding the re-examination. One of the students giving the exam just received surgery and it is impossible for her to re-study a course content from a year back, and give a re-exam at such a small time. Other students also had similar conditions as some were working outside the region, some were preparing for other career opportunities, and so forth. 

The education system, the MoE renamed MoEST, and the entire system of the nation have been trying their best to enhance the education system of the nation. Although the history of education for normal citizens, has not even crossed a century, this progress in the academic sector is a good run. However, the country still needs to work harder, create more strategic plans, and ensure that the educational system here, meets the requirements everywhere around the globe, be it practical or book learning.