Flawed policy?
Between 1970 and 2011, even as the country went through multiple political transitions and a decade-long Maoist insurgency, Nepal achieved consistent and impressive success in enrolling children into schools.
It was a period during which many developing countries invested heavily in school enrollment, believing education would provide opportunities for economic progress and equality. UN Secretary General Kofi Anan hailed education as a “bridge from misery to hope,” and a “bulwark against poverty.” In the early 2000s, the Millennium Development Goals prioritised 100% enrollment in primary school, on the premise that access to education was every child’s inalienable right.
But since 2011, both the growth and optimism seem to have tapered off. Unlike the apparent progress of the preceding years, the past decade has been one of manifest struggles: disparity between schooling for the rich and poor, and between urban and rural areas; poor learning outcomes; outdated teaching methods; under-resourced schools; and disconcertingly high dropout rates. Evidently, putting kids in school doesn't equate to giving them education or opportunities.
