With about 73 years of academic history, people in the past mistook being educated as being literate, in Nepal. Being educated means having a detailed and deeper understanding of various subject matters, being able to think critically, and practically applying the knowledge in real-time to the point that they could gain financial benefit from their academic qualifications. Meanwhile, being literate means just being able to read and write.
With time, innovation, technology, and continuously incurring changes, the education system also needs to be enhanced. For this, the education system of Nepal needs to move along with the changing technology, just like most of the foreign countries have been doing. Also, the academic system of the country should be sound enough to meet the industrialization happening as well as focus on the future-centric industrial revolution.
What is Education 4.0?
To elaborate this further, there is a new concept introduced in the academic world termed ‘Education 4.0’ which talks about how the curriculum should be. It further talks about how the curriculum should be structured based on advanced technology and automation, ensuring that the curriculum is focused on future transformation and is connected with the upcoming industrial and educational revolution. Involving AI, smart technology, and robotics in education would be a great way of learning and exploring digital competencies while still being a student. Involving and integrating students with such technology during their learning phase would be a greater support to the modern world, both in terms of learning as well as development. Overall, Education 4.0 is the transformative approach to the learning system of the world, that will work to prepare students to achieve success in the technology-driven environment.
Education 4.0 in Nepal
The Nepalese Education System, being influenced by the Indian method of curriculum, was designed as a three-tiered, 16-year education system, among which the initial 10 years were separated for primary and secondary education, the next 4 years were separated for a college degree, and the next 2 years for the master’s study. However, the scenario has changed along with this, and the government as well as the private corporations are serious about education and its importance. Furthermore, the Ministry of Education has been working with various bodies, both international and national, in order to improve the education system of the country. However, there are still a lot of opportunities that education 4.0 has to offer the country. It needs more focus on integrating technology and practical skills relevant to the job market rather than outdated traditional theoretical studies only. To work with this global trend, the government of Nepal has been providing a compulsory and free basic education act. However, due to lack of funding, the quality of education is still lacking in a lot of aspects like technical, infrastructural, and administrative, stopping the enhancement of Education 4.0 in Nepal.
Present Condition of Nepal
Currently, the majority of students are seeking abroad studies because they find the academics in a foreign land more organized and technology-driven. As per the records of 2024, 1,12,593 students received NOC (No Objection Certificates) and moved abroad. A NOC is a document from the government of Nepal that serves as proof that the government has approved all your documents and has allowed you to continue your studies abroad.
With this information, we can feel that the students are demanding for proper education system in Nepal that meets the needs of today’s market. Education in Nepal needs a lot of supervision, improvement, and involvement of technology in order to sustain the futuristic world and educational system. Also, along with theoretical teaching practices, more practical and industry- or real-world-friendly teaching practices should be incorporated.
What is the Education 4.0 Taxonomy?
Most of the educational classifications in terms of secondary education (3 different categories) are for either building abilities and skills, building attitudes and values, or providing knowledge and information. This is where the Education 4.0 Taxonomy differentiates from the other classifications. Even experts and employers agree with the view that more than knowledge and information, building abilities, skills, attitudes, and values is important. Hence, the Education 4.0 Taxonomy is built with the idea that skill development starts at a young age. In fact, children are more of a learner, and incorporating such skillful and practical learning methods from childhood could work in creating a positive impact on their cognitive development, and skills development of individuals, since their childhood.
Skills development is important but that does not mean that one individual child needs to be skilled in all fields. One of the research done by the World Economic Forum on the ‘Collaborative Problem-solving skill area’ one specific skill, showed that investing in this one skill could add around $2.54 trillion to the global GDP. Still, less than half of the youths globally, are yet to seek for full range of a particular skill required to thrive in their work, as well as their life.
Let’s look at the World Economic Forum’s Education 4.0 framework
This framework and the entire concept of Education 4.0 is to teach children that education is not about staying inside the 4 walls and learning the theories from the same old teacher, but it is about exploring, utilizing all the available resources, and practically learning all the abilities, skill, and attitudes required, as a student.
Roles played by the government for incorporating technology into education
New Education Act (2016):
This act was implemented with the motive to enhance the education system of Nepal and the main outcome of the act resulted in the change of education policy of the SLC examination. The SLC exam was taken as the grade 10 examination, and with this act, it would take place as the Grade 12 examination also the name was changed from SLC to SEE (Secondary Education Examination).
The ICT in Education Master Plan (2013-2017):
This plan was developed by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MoEST) and was the first-ever information and communication technology plan for education in Nepal. With a goal to cater to 4 major problems, this plan aimed to work on strengthening human resources, fast development of ICT infrastructures, fast development of education learning materials, and maximizing ICT to enhance the overall education system.
This project has been receiving funds from various sources like governmental and non-governmental organizations, philanthropic organizations, individual contributions, corporate agencies, and even commercial banks. With this continuous effort seen from the different sectors, it can be said that most of the sectors have understood the importance of education and how powerful could it be if education is integrated with technology.
The government’s fifteen periodic plans (2019-2024):
This plan was initiated to develop the digital education learning materials and ensure that the teaching and learning process is fluent. On this, the Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA) has also been helping and has supported more than 5,000 secondary schools by providing and restructuring infrastructures.
SESP
School Sector Development Program (2016-2022) has also been working on integrating technology alongside education. For this, it has been working with ICT and provided grants for building infrastructure like connecting charges, also looking after budgets for computers and projectors.
Apart from the actual project, the federal-level government along with the local administrations have been working on achieving school grants to facilitate technological aspects of education including internet access, purchasing required computers, and paying for internet fees.
Problems faced when incorporating technology with education, in Nepal
When it comes to the provision of technological aspects in education, Nepal is far behind. The city area has adequate access to technological aspects, while still the rural areas don’t. In terms of numbers, as per the EMIS data of 2021, only 50% of the total schools in Nepal have a supply of electricity, which means that 28,833 governmental schools in Nepal have proper access to education. Meanwhile. 42% (almost 12,000 schools) have access to computers and required ICT equipment. Furthermore, only 19% (5,400) of the governmental schools have internet connections. The ones having access to the internet and other technological aspects also face the problem of unstable and weak connections. And without the proper internet connection, bringing in ICT equipment will be of no effective use.
Education and Technology Readiness Index (ETRI)
ETRI is a global tool created with the motive to enhance the readiness of countries to implement effective education technology (EdTech). This tool was developed by the World Bank in collaboration with the Imaginable Future and has 6 different pillars;
For Nepal, the results of this tool state that although the progress in the school management pillar there is school room for improvement, especially at the policy level. The baseline of this result is that there are plans made for integrating ICT into teaching, but at the policy level, there is no proper guidance for incorporating ICT into education.
At both the Student and teacher levels, competence standards are absent, and both parties have not been demonstrating readiness to support education, in general.
When it comes to technological aspects, devices, connectivity, and digital resources require greater development and guidance at both policy and practice levels.
Overall, the result suggests that in order to enhance the EdTech Readiness of Nepal, improving the 6 pillars is important.
For doing so, the following can be considered;
How does integrating technology in education work?
Having access to technology in education increases both teacher’s and students’ performances, encourages student-centered teaching strategies, opens the way to more learning opportunities, and brings in more pedagogical changes. With the help of technology, learning will not be centered on theory only, and learning will become more interesting. This access will allow learners to go beyond local areas or schools, and grab knowledge globally.
The concept of using technology in education began back in the 1950s when small language schools started using tape recorders, movies, and photographs as the major teaching tools to teach the English language globally.
After that, people have started using technology, and available resources online to enhance their knowledge in different fields, while not being limited to just school-level education. With the help of the internet, students have started becoming more research-oriented and finding their study materials online by searching for the required keyword through various freely available ICT tools like YouTube, Google, and so forth.
Youths taking advantage of Digital Learning is what will be shaping their future. As they attend their regular classes, they may find a field of interest on the Internet. They can seek online education of their course of interest which is the beauty of the current era’s education system. The gap in our education system arises because everything was pre-planned and implemented, and students had to choose from the available options only. Such issues in the education system have been slowly decreasing through the technological revolution, resulting in the upliftment of the education sector.
This transition in the education system and the education sector from the traditional method to technology adoption with proper internet connectivity is a need of the digital age.
Nepali Teacher’s View on this concept
Just stating is the implementation of Education 4.0 is important or bringing in new technology to help the learners is not what this is all about. Revolution is not an easy thing to do and needs support from the upper heads like the Ministry of Science and Technology or the directly involved parties like teachers, and other administrative people. The teachers should know about this concept and way of teaching through Education 4.0 to teach the students. Hence the attitude of teachers toward technology could be an influential factor towards Education 4.0. As per one of the studies conducted on the topic ‘Teacher’s Perceptions on the Adoption of Education 4.0 in School in Nepal’, 300 teachers from Lalitpur were questioned about their viewpoint on technology in education. The majority of the teachers responded that they were positively driven towards technology and it could be a lot more useful in the field of education.
