THE recommendation in the National Education Policy 2010 to extend primary education up to class VIII has not been implemented even after 10 years of the framing of the policy. The recommendation could not be implemented in such a long time due to a lack of coordination between the Education Ministry and the Primary and Mass Education Ministry. The policy recommended introducing the new form of primary education from the 2011-12 financial year, besides formulating a curriculum, selecting textbooks for students, and preparing teachers’ guidelines. However, the two Education Ministries have made the issue complex.
The country at present has altogether 66,000 government and 65,000 private primary schools. In 2013, the Primary and Mass Education Ministry under a pilot project extended the academic activities of 729 government primary schools across the country. Experts have observed that although the experimental initiative brought forth good results, unfortunately, it was not carried on further due to a lack of commitment to the nation. Under the project, all students between Class VI and Class VIII have been getting stipends. The schools achieved excellent results in the last few years.
Teachers of these schools stated that they have had two achievements following the extension of academic activities. Firstly, they succeeded narrowing down the dropout rate, and secondly, students’ mental growth has been ensured. Experts said the government must take the initiative to build classrooms and appoint teachers if it really wants to improve the quality of education. Lack of commitment, on part of both the Education Ministries, is responsible for the delay in the implementation of the policy. Meanwhile, after delaying the implementation of the policy for 10 years, the government is now considering bringing about an amendment to the National Education Policy 2010. We hope the inertia to implement the policy would be ended soon and the country’s education system enters into the new era.
