Despite the rise in literacy rate by 11.8 per cent, education experts are not satisfied.

The overall literacy rate for population aged five years and above rose to 65.9 per cent from 54.1 per cent over the last ten years, according to the census report unveiled yesterday.

However, experts said that in the current scenario, Nepal would take three decades to eliminate illiteracy from the country and never reach its target ‘Education for All ‘ by 2015.

The literacy rate of males is at 75.1 while it is 57.4 per cent for women. Similarly the highest literacy rate is in Kathmandu with 86.3 per cent and the lowest in Rautahut with 41.7 per cent.

According to the census report, the annual increment in literacy rate is 1.18 per cent.

“Although the government has been spending a lot on the education sector, the result is not satisfactory,” said Educationists Bidhyanath Koirala, speaking at a programme organised by Education Journalists’ Network in the capital today.

According to him, the nation spent more than Rs 2.652 trillion on education last year.

“Any education plan prepared on traditional basis is not going to work,” he added.

Nepal is still far behind countries like Maldives and Sri Lanka where literacy rate is almost 95 per cent, Baburam Pokharel, president of Private and Boarding Schools Organisation Nepal said.

Out of the total Nepali population (26,494,505), 39 per cent have completed Grade V, 20 per cent have completed Grade VIII, 10.2 per cent have studied up to School Leaving Certificate (SLC) and 10.2 per cent have studied above the SLC level.

Likewise, only 4.2 per cent people have informal education.

Out of the 129 countries across the globe, Nepal stands at the 111th position in terms of education, which reflects Nepal government’s low priority to the education sector.

source: The Himalayan Times,27 Nov 2012