DOES THE WORD ' INTERNATIONAL' COMPLEMENT STANDARD?

                                    WHAT IS IN NAME?

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W

hat is the most significant case that has to be entailed and raised in a teacher-parent meeting is the trend of naming educational institutes. When we glance at the hoarding board of such institutes in Kathmandu valley, you will spot an adjective “International.” Does this word complement international quality? Are these institutes which have added so-called word in their names imparting international standard? Do these institutes meet international requirements? In Kathmandu a multitude of institutes are mushrooming in the name of imparting quality education. No government body has yet found to inspect such naming trends. Some schools and colleges are hiring foreign teachers who are not conversant with our course, syllabus and pedagogy. What is the most shocking thing is that these foreign teachers are not enough qualified to teach in our country as they do not attain more than an intermediate degree.

          As a true teacher, I avow that literacy rate is improving day in, day out. Nevertheless, quality of education has been poor. This is due to over emphasis of the private academic institutes laid on quantity rather than quality. It is true that District Education Office is not taking any action against these institutes that have directly breached the rules and regulation put forward by the DEO. The reason behind is that inspection team are influenced by underhand dealings. After having offered monetary gift from such wrongdoing institutes, they make the best report on behalf of the institutes. This malpractice will be a hindrance to educational development.

It is really a hard time for both parents and students to choose a right institute for quality education. Parents are really spellbound as profit oriented institutes disseminate fake ideas, visions via advertisement. There is unhealthy practice among academic institutes for showing lofty aims to allure guardians. Students are cajoled into getting admission in nominal institutions. A handful of well-established schools like Rato Bangla, GEMS, Budhanilkantha, and St. Xavier hardly make an announcement for new admission inasmuch as these have already attained popularity. Some newly-established schools and colleges have well-constructed infrastructure, well-advanced library, laboratory, yet miserable in terms of quality. Therefore, guardians must consult different counselors to get an insight into right institutes.

 I exhort the government should emphasize quality education by instituting invitational education. Underhand dealings should be discouraged by the government and must impose strict law on educational institutes which breach regulations to undermine the quality of education. The tradition of renting houses which doesn’t look like a school or college at all must be closed down immediately. In case the government launches various awareness programs in regard to educational institutes, guardians will abnegate running after names. In lieu of concentrating on so-called word, the board of school management should provide a rich mixture of approaches to teaching, learning and assessment. Also, they must aim at giving their students a competitive edge when pursuing their studies either at school or college and to enable them to make an immediate and lasting contribution to the success of the nation.

 THE CHIEF EDITOR