The Ministry of Education (MoE) has demanded Rs 82 billion for the next fiscal year to meet the target of the National Planning Commission to ensure free and compulsory education up to the secondary level.

The 13th, three-year interim, plan formulated by the commission aims to make education up to the secondary level freely accessible to all by the fiscal year 2015/16. According to Roj Nath Pandey, deputy spokesman for the ministry, the budget has to be increased by around Rs 18 billion in the next fiscal year to meet the target.

“However, the Ministry of Finance has set Rs 76 billion as the budget ceiling for the Education Ministry and it won’t be sufficient to meet the target,” he said, adding that the academic sector had not got the deserved attention from the government. Under the School Sector Reform Programme, education from Grades 1 to 8 is taken as basic and nine to 12 as secondary. The MoE got more than Rs 63 billion in the ongoing fiscal year 2012/13. As the largest budget pie goes to salary, the MoE would be unable to meet the target of free and compulsory education up to the secondary level with Rs 76 billion.

If the ministry gets sought funds, Pandey said, five districts with highest enrollment rates and five with the lowest—two each from the five development regions—will be provided with free and compulsory education in the upcoming fiscal year.

source: the kathmandu post,1 July 2013