3 Takeaways from Sector Dialogues to Improve School Education in Nepal

Nepal has significantly improved equitable access to school education. It achieved gender parity in national enrollment rates^[2] at basic and secondary levels. However, inequities remain, especially at higher levels. Far fewer Dalit children are enrolled in secondary than in basic education.^[3] Also, access to science education is limited, access to physical school environments is inadequate, and teachers’ capacity to deliver inclusive education is lacking.

Nepal further faces major constraints in the country’s efforts to improve school education performance. These include inadequate learning facilities and insufficient number and inequitable deployment of teachers, leading to a lack of subject teachers in grades 6–12.

Such challenges highlight the need to reduce inequities in access and participation, as well as to improve the quality and resilience of school education to better prepare Nepal's youth for higher learning and enable them to acquire skills for employment.

The School Education Sector Plan is the Nepal government’s 10–year (2022–2032) comprehensive strategic plan to give the school education sector a boost. It aims to strengthen equity, quality, and resilience of school education by helping the government (i) enhance learning provisions for basic and secondary schools; (ii) strengthen teaching and learning in basic and secondary schools; (iii) accelerate the recovery from learning losses caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic; and (iv) improve the capacity of governments, especially local governments, for education planning, monitoring, and reporting. The government, in close collaboration with the joint financing partners, leads its implementation. The financing partners provide funding to the government’s treasury through results-based funding and/or program-based funding. Other development partners also extend support to projects aligned with the program.

Since 2004, the government has implemented five consecutive school education programs under the sector-wide approach (SWAp) modality, framing Nepal’s efforts toward equitable access to quality education. Over the past 20 years, this partnership has significantly improved access to school education in Nepal. Primary enrollment rates increased from 84% in 2003–2004 to 97% in 2022–2023 and over 3 million students every year receive free school meals. The approach has been instrumental in strengthening the sector’s governance during Nepal’s transition to federalism, ensuring stable funding during challenges and political transitions. This modality ensures flexibility, ownership, and accountability within the government, thereby fostering education sector resilience.

As a part of the bi-annual consultations and decision-making processes, the executing agency of the School Education Sector Plan—the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology—invites joint financing partners and other stakeholders to review the plan’s progress and implementation. Planning and executing these missions spans several weeks of preparation, pre-meetings, documentation submission, and review. Participants include relevant ministries and entities from various levels of government, academic bodies, development partners, international and nongovernment organizations, and civil society.

Here are three key takeaways from the sector-wide approach (SWAp) and the Joint Review Meeting 2024:

1. Dedicate time for other relevant ministries to share their insights and to foster interministerial collaborations.

Nepal's transition to federalism has brought about significant changes to the delivery of public services such as health and education, with the local governments assuming the primary responsibility for these functions. This has led to concomitant changes in the reporting and accountability structures, including public finance management with multiple federal ministries involved. Though this shift creates opportunities for more cost-efficient and targeted local implementation, it is complex to manage and organize the capacity building of 753 local governments.

Other line ministries, though not directly responsible for the education SWAp, could bring constructive feedback and ideas to help identify and address common goals. First-of-a-kind dedicated sessions with the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration and the Ministry of Finance during the joint review meeting were useful in identifying and outlining concrete areas for coordination and collaboration, such as the need to (i) integrate planning, budgeting, and reporting mechanisms for local levels; (ii) strengthen the local governments’ child-friendly programs; (iii) conduct capacity development activities for administrative staff and elected officials at local and provincial levels; and (iv) identify key performance indicators that can be used to monitor local level education performance. The joint review meeting agreed to develop a practical collaboration modality with the Ministry of Finance on public finance management and with Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration on local government capacity development.

2. Include voices from decentralized decision makers.

Previous joint review meetings highlighted the importance of including perspectives and experiences from different tiers of government. A dedicated space enables local and provincial governments to share their reflections. Also, it allows subnational actors to better understand the mandate and structure of the review meetings and gives them opportunities to directly raise their concerns to federal decision makers.

Joint Review Meeting 2024 included voices from four provinces and six local governments through dedicated panel discussions. Education officers from local governments shared the dilemma of balancing the priorities of the elected leadership and complying with federal conditional grants, and emphasized the need for greater flexibility in the use of such grants. Provincial government representatives discussed a wide area of subjects related to the role and mandate of provincial governments in school education, including providing opportunities for teachers' professional development and the managing secondary education examinations. Although local and provincial governments are key stakeholders during field visits, it was unique to have all three tiers of government in the same room.

In the future, these sessions can be further improved by capturing more gendered perspectives. Furthermore, the review meetings can extend the same opportunity to local NGOs, local associations, teachers, and students. Such grassroots perspectives will further help the School Education Sector Plan respond and adapt to local needs.

3. Keep compliance-related discussions outside and focus on strategic priorities.

During substantive reviews such as the Joint Review Meeting, it is crucial to maintain focus on strategic priorities and issues. This can often be difficult considering the volume of material to cover and the varying bilateral requirements of development partners. However, discussions should center on joint priorities and key reform areas, avoiding “tick-box” exercises, such as reviewing the progress of individual disbursement-linked indicators, which are largely bilateral concerns.

In the JRM 2024, compliance-focused discussions were largely held outside of the main event, which worked well. As these deliberations tend to be very technical, they can be very time-consuming, thus reducing the time spent for crucial issues. The review meeting in 2024 dedicated time and space for guided discussions on specific topics such as basic and secondary education, curriculum and evaluation, teacher management and development, and education in emergencies and crisis. It was evident that the deep dives led to more targeted agreed actions for follow-up and are now outlined in an Aide Memoire with implementation modalities, as per the joint financing agreement. The next months will show if the inclusion of less process-oriented actions will strengthen accountability and ownership.

Success in these three areas requires numerous iterations and an extensive pre-planning process.

Nepal’s education sector-wide approach, which has evolved over the past two decades, is mature and recognized for its strong foundation. As the partnership between the government and joint financing partners is built on mutual trust and common goals, both were open to modifying the review process. This ultimately demonstrates the power, flexibility, and willingness of SWAps and sector dialogues in finding new directions and setting new agenda that address evolving challenges in the education sector.

^[1] Asian Development Bank; European Union; Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office; Finland; Norway; UNICEF, USAID, and World Bank. The Global Partnership for Education also provides financing, which is administered by the World Bank.

^[2] The ratio of girls to boys enrolled at basic and secondary levels shows that each are represented equally.

^[3] Dalits are people suffering from caste and untouchability-based practices and religious, social, political, and cultural 
discrimination in Nepal.

Asian Development Bank. Nepal: Supporting the School Education Sector Plan.