Kathmandu, March 23 The number of girl students is found to be higher in community schools and boys in private or institutional schools, attending the upcoming Secondary Education Examinations or SEE. This shows that the class and social discrimination in education continues to stay.
A total of 475,003 students are appearing this year’s SEE starting on March 24 and of them 236,445 are boys and 238,558 are girls. Likewise, of the 304,196 students appearing the SEE from community schools, 118,807 are girls while the number of girls attending the same examinations from private schools is only 56,751. The number of boys attending the SEE from private schools is 78,056, according to the Office of the Controller of Examinations.
The number of girl students in private schools in the urban centres is however comparatively higher. Of the total 70,568 students appearing the SEE from province no. 2, 27,041 are boys and 33,527 are girls. In province no. 1, of the 83, 818 examinees, 40,164 are boys and 43,654 are girls. Likewise, of the 160,002 students appearing the SEE in province no. 3, altogether 52,880 are boys and 53,112 are girls.
Chairperson of the Private and Boarding Schools Association of Nepal (PABSON) Rituraj Sapkota said it is the parents who are sending their sons to private school in higher number, hence effort from their side alone is not enough.
Educationist Dr Mana Prasad Wagley views that the private schools need to be gradually closed in order to end social discrimination in education. It may be noted that the high-level national education commission had in its report recommended making the private schools service-oriented.
