The United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is all set to launch a new two-year project titled ‘Planning effective delivery of education in a federal state’.

Issuing a press statement today, UNESCO’s Kathmandu office said the United Nations’ Peace Fund for Nepal (UNPFN) has allocated a total budget of $378,000 to contribute to Nepal’s peace and development process by fostering constructive dialogue and planning, leading to progress in constitution-making.

“This initiative provides a strategic contribution towards achieving the long-term structural transformation embedded in the Comprehensive Peace Accord, which is necessary for the state to be able to deliver inclusive, gender-sensitive, human rights-based basic services such as education,” Axel Plathe, UNESCO representative to Nepal and head of the UNESCO Office in Kathmandu, said in the statement.

The project also aims to plan an effective delivery of education in a future federal state by fostering constructive dialogue and planning, said Tap Raj Pant, national programme officer for education at the UNESCO Office in Kathmandu.

The project will work together with six implementing partners to contribute to a better understanding of issues related to federalism options in the education system, it said.

It further said the project will provide models, plans and coordination mechanisms and build the capacity of the Ministry of Education (MoE) to plan, implement and monitor the restructuring of the education system.

Earlier in 2008, UNESCO had established ‘Education and Federalism Support Group’, one of the first expert groups taking up specific federalism- related issues. The group had identified a variety of issues that needed to be addressed when discussing education in a

federal system such as costing of the education system and resource transfers, teachers’ training, responsibilities related to curriculum development, architecture of the governance structure, staffing and recruitment of qualified teachers, and issues related to oversight and accountability.

According to the statement, the UNESCO office in Kathmandu will oversee the project in close partnership with the MoE, the National Planning Commission and the Nepal National Commission for UNESCO.

source: the himalayan times,29 may 2013