The interest of parents in the urban cities in Nepal is tending towards enrolling their children in paid private (institutional) schools, rather than free public schools. This paper aimed at exploring the reasons behind growing craziness of the parents towards the private education system in Nepal. We adopted a critical paradigm, case study approach using in-depth interviews, and observation techniques to gather field information. This study has signaled that institutional schools are facilitating to homogenize the education system between haves and have nots groups in society. Different categories of private education systems, with accountable management team have facilitated in bridging the social gaps in Nepal. At the same time, public schools urgently need to revisit their management model, pedagogical system, and publicize their services and strengths, so that they could regain their trust from the urban parents. The explorations of this research could be helpful to outline the positive aspects of private schools and buildup the public education system along in Nepal.

The people of Nepal have witnessed several political/social transformations in the country, which have resulted in the restoration of peace, the promulgation of the new constitution. The restructuring of the country into 753 local units has led to the substantive devolution of the 22 power power/jurisdictions from the center to the local governments. In this scenario, the local governments implement their development plans through consumer committees by mobilizing the local beneficiaries. The purpose of this paper is to explore the difficulties faced by these novice committees in getting development funds from the local governments even in urban cities. The paper is based on a qualitative study with an interpretative case study design. The study has revealed that the chaos of bureaucratic hurdles to receive the development budgets from the Metropolitan office is demoralizing the community volunteers at local levels. Local government should facilitate the fund releasing process to the consumer committees by easing the rules and regulations. There must be a shared governance system between the local government and beneficiaries so that both parties feel a shared responsibility to achieve any development goals. Likewise, the government should have the lead governance towards the banking institutions. Banks are the mediators between the government and the consumer to make the fund-releasing process becomes swifter and less complicated. The findings of this study could be useful in framing appropriate plans/policies for the local governments, to encourage the community people to participate as volunteers in local development projects.

The Government of Nepal has prioritized the need of mobile skill-training program for imparting the skill-training opportunities to the potential beneficiaries in their own settlement both in urban and rural areas. It is different from the centrally based training program as it is conducted by setting temporary training venues in particular settlement where the training participants are residing in the majority. This paper describes how adult women exhibit readiness to participate in the short-term mobile skill-training program in Nepal. The paper is based on a qualitative study with an interpretative paradigm following the narrative inquiry approach. The four participants were selected based on their experiences of receiving the training through mobile skill training program and currently employed in the trained trades. The interpretations of their life stories reveals that women in Nepal choose to enroll in the short-term mobile skill-training program as they believe it to be a gateway for them to get social recognition. Likewise, they prefer closer training venue and short duration training program due to their responsibilities towards their family. The findings of this research are useful in framing appropriate plans and policies for conducting short-term vocational training programs in mobile venues for bringing socio-economic changes in women's lives by respecting their family value system.

The global Covid-19 pandemic has severely hit the lives of the people of Nepal. The country witnessed two phases of lockdown over 10 months from March 2020 until August 2021. I completed my PhD data collection in Nepal through February to April 2021, when the pandemic’s risk was naturally lowered. My research explores local value systems of communities involved in school governance in Lalitpur, Nepal. Accordingly, my participants included schools’ stakeholders: parents, teachers, locals, Education Officers and elected representatives. The Covid-19 situation in Nepal requires social distancing and mask wearing while talking with others. In my experience these health protocols disrupted my aims to develop rapport and build close, trusting relationships with my research participants. In this article, I reflect on ways I sought to build relationships of trust with my participants before conducting interviews amid Covid-19 regulations. I narrate my experiences as a Nepalese citizen and researcher in uncertain times. This research might be useful to researchers in establishing a relationship with participants, applying face to face interviews in unfavourable situations such as a pandemic.

The 2015 constitution of Nepal declared Nepal to be a Federal, Democratic, and Republic nation. The constitution has provided local governments the right to manage school education, and the 2017 Local Government Operation Act of Nepal has outlined the roles and responsibilities of local governments in taking guardianship of school education. Since 2017, Nepal has been in the process of institutionalising decentralised governance practices, but this is proceeding at a slow pace. Unprecedently, from early 2020, the COVID-pandemic hit hard the lives of Nepali people, and Nepali education suffered greatly. The pandemic has brought several opportunities for the government to devolve the management system of school education to local levels. This article is based upon the analysis of the six newly introduced plans, regulations, and guidelines in Nepali education, that aim to continue school education amid the COVID-pandemic. These newly introduced polices have significantly acknowledged and mobilised the local strengths in educational management. This research supports a new academic discussion on governance ideas of the Nepalese education system, induced by the COVID- 19 pandemic.