Equity in higher education of Nepal

Abstract

University education enables people to have better socio-economic return, engage in critical reflection of political affairs, social practices, and inequalities which subsequently strengthens democracy. The educational opportunities for disadvantaged people help them to break the vicious cycle of poverty, marginalization, and discrimination by enabling them to improve the social and economic status. The Government of Nepal has enacted the National Higher Education (HE) Policy, but it lags ensuring equitable opportunities for the marginalized community, particularly the Dalit community. Despite the constitutional commitment to provide equitable opportunities for educational development, Dalits who comprise above 13% population have been facing multitudes of exclusion in HE opportunities. Venanzi's social exclusion perspective has been used to analyze the underrepresentation of Dalits in HE. The ethnocentrism-historically developed ethnic perspective manifested by the National Code of Conduct of Nepal in 1854; the discursive formation-micro-stories that explained the derogatory origin of Dalits and the hegemonic discourse-subtle form of power perpetrated by non-Dalit in system implementation curtail Dalit's equitable participation in HE. Consequently, Dalits fail to move upward to the socioeconomic status which has impacted the overall development of the country. Mass advocacy and awareness campaign to deconstruct hierarchy-based caste system, data/evidence-based gender and social inclusion policy, increased participation of Dalits in decision-making positions, exploration of caste-related issues through periodic academic research and enactment of subsequent actions, inclusion of Dalit-related issues in HE curriculum, and arranging alternative education for geographically excluded Dalit community may enable Dalits to get HE.

Teachers' Humanistic Role in Teaching Mathematics Online During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Nepal

“…This reason may cause students' problems in digital resources-related problems in online teaching and it is also a new practice in school to university level as well (Khadka, 2020). Teachers' humanistic role was weak in university level students that partially justifies the findings of Gandhari (2021) whose review indicates that there is lagging to ensure the equitable opportunities for marginality communities in higher education development. Further, the caste-based discrimination prevails at the school level and there is also a hostile environment for them, especially, Dalit caste (so called untouchable caste in Nepal) however this issue may not be severe in online setting (Khadka, 2020).…”

Stakeholder Perspectives on the Management and Implementation of Campus Autonomy in Tribhuvan University Nepal: A Qualitative Analysis

“…TU implemented a campus decentralization policy (1998) to enhance the quality of higher education in Nepal (TU, 2019). However, the policy could not be implemented on all its constituent campuses on the same date due to divergent opinions among the stakeholders (Bista et al, 2019;Gandhari, 2021). Similarly, most of the constituent campuses did not entertain entering into the TU constituent campus autonomy policy (2005) at the beginning stage.…”