Community participation in schooling in Nepal: a disjunction between policy intention and policy implementation?

Abstract

Community participation in the governance of school systems is a recurrent theme of educational reform in developed and developing countries alike. This article analyses the effort of one developing country – Nepal – to promote broader participation in educational decision-making through local school governance structure. It looks at how the current policy creates spaces for community participation in school and the extent to which a gap exists between policy intention and policy implementation. Drawing on the case study data, this article suggests that while the policy has created legitimate spaces for community participation in school, participation in such spaces is taking a form of tokenism, and the community represented in school governance is restricted to a small number of political elites. Given that ethnic, cultural, linguistic and socio-economic characteristics of the local populace, problems exist within the school system to embrace differences and diversities that prevent a majority of parents from effective participation in school. This article concludes that along with the structural reform, participation can be reinforced by developing a long-term strategy to build community capacity for the provision and management of education, as well as by preparing educators to work effectively with parents of different socio-cultural backgrounds.

Keywords:

• decentralization
• community participation
• Village Education Committee
• School Management Committee
• Parent Teacher Association
• Nepal

Notes

1. The Folkeskole is one type of school in Denmark covering the entire period of compulsory education that caters for pupils aged 6 to 17.

2. Nepal was ruled by a small ruling elite clan, Rana for more than a century – 1846 to 1951, who kept education as a prerogative of ruling elites. The general public was barred from schooling. So, education development during this period was extremely limited, which is regarded as a “dark age” in the educational history of Nepal.

3. In 1961, King Mahendra sacked the elected government, banned all political parties and introduced a party-less Panchayat government led by himself.

4. Since the last local election in 1997, elections of the VDCs and Municipalities have not been held due to the Maoist insurgency lasting over a decade in the country (1996–2006). After the end of the Maoist insurgency in April 2006 with the downfall of the centuries-old monarchy, the Constituent Assembly, elected in 2008, has been undertaking the task of the country's political restructuring and constitution drafting.

5. The views of the participants, originally expressed in Nepali, were translated by the author himself.

6. With a widespread criticism of taking over the SMC posts by unintended groups due to the definitional ambiguity of “guardian”, the government recently made certain amendments to the Education Rules, and according to which, the guardian of a student refers only to his/her mother, father, grandmother, and grandparents for the purpose of selection in the SMC.

7. Kantipur is a national daily published in Nepali language (official website http://www.ekantipur.com/kantipur/). The Himalayan Times (also cited in this article) is a daily newspaper published in English (official website http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/).

8. Nepal's Census 2001 enumerated 103 caste/ethnic groups which are categorized into three broad groups – Brahmin/Chhetri (upper caste), Janajati and Madhesi (middle caste) and Dalit (lower caste or untouchable).

9. According to the preliminary result of Census 2011 published on 27 September 2011, Nepal's population reached 26.6 million, with annual growth rate of 1.4 % (CBS, 2011).