Education entrepreneurs have criticised the government for not investing enough to promote Nepal´s higher secondary education.

Speaking at a round-table conference "Higher Education: Possibilities and Challenges" organized by Nepal Republic Media Monday, education entrepreneurs urged the government to acknowledge the role of private institutions in promoting higher secondary education.

Referring to the problem of power outage facing Nepal, Yuvraj Sharma, General Secretary of Higher Secondary Schools´ Association (HISSAN), said "We have avoided an educational load-shedding thanks to private institutions."

Sharma added, "When Nepal supplied electricity to Bihar, which was then synonymous with poverty, we asked if it would be able to pay us. Today, Bihar is selling electricity to Nepal and is asking if we would be able to pay. We could have now faced a similar circumstance in education sector had private institutions not flourished."

Dr Baburam Pokhrel, President of Private and Boarding Schools´ Organization, Nepal (PABSON) said "About 55 per cent of education budget goes to school education and significant amount is spent for higher education too, but there is virtually no investment in higher secondary education."

The conference, chaired by Binod Gyawali, Managing Director of Nepal Republic Media, was attended by HISSAN president Umesh Shrestha, Bikram Rai, Vice Chairman of HISSAN, Sanu Amatya, Vice President of PABSON, Surya Adhikari, Vice President of N-PABSON, Dr Rojnath Pandey, assistant spokesperson of Ministry of Education, Suprabhat Bhandari, President of Guardian Association of Nepal, Dipak Subedi, President of Higher Secondary School Teachers´ Association of Nepal (HISTAN) and education expert Bidyanath Koirala. Republica editor-in-chief Kosmos Biswokarma and Nagarik editor-in-chief Kishor Nepal also attended the conference.

source: republica,4 June 2012