Despite claims by Minister for Education Dina Nath Sharma about institutionalizing a no-advertising policy in the entire academic sector, the Ministry of Education (MoE) is all set to issue new guidelines for private academic institutions on the amount they can spend on advertising in one academic year.

According to officials at MoE, the guidelines mandate a private sector institution to spend up to Rs 500,000 for advertising in a year.“Primary level schools can spend up to Rs 300 000 whereas secondary level schools can spend Rs 500,000 maximum,” said MoE spokesperson Mahashram Sharma. The guidelines are to be issued next week, he said.

Earlier, Minister Sharma had claimed that the government would completely ban advertising by academic institutionss, to control commercialization in education that has put quality education beyond the reach of poor families.

In an effort to check the mushrooming of private and boarding schools in urban areas, the new regulations also set out the number of schools in Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), the municipalities and village development committees, as per population density.

The capital city can have up to 10 primary and five secondary schools in each ward whereas the government education offices in the four sub-metropolitan cities are authorized to register seven primary and three secondary schools in each ward.

Likewise, VDCs with less than 500 schoolgoing children can have five primary and two secondary schools, while VDCs with more schoolgoers can have seven primary and three secondary schools.

In order to balance the number of existing schools, the District Education Office, Kathmandu has also decided to reject the registration of new schools in the next academic session, following an increment in student enrollment in private institutions, informed education officer Baikuntha Khanal.

School observers deployed from district education offices, the Department of Education and MoE as well as the guardians themselves are to be made accountable for monitoring the level of implementaion in all districts, said the MoE spokesperson.

To ensure that school infrastructure meets standards, the guidelines make it mandatory for school buildings that are to be constructed to be approved by the urban development and construction offices of the districts in question.

"Private and boarding schools can be run in their own buidlings, or on rent with at least five-year lease agreements. Schools must ensure separate rooms for school staff, administration, accounts, library, school hall, stores and laboratory," said MoE spokesperson Sharma.Similarly, each classroom must be equipped to hold at least 33 students.

source: republica,19 Dec 2012