Education and Nepotism

It is a bitter reality that education remained in the control of selected few in Nepal. Ever since first school and first college was established, this trend has not ebbed. Rather, the controllers have undergone drastic transformation. Earlier, the selected few related to feudal rulers clan of Shah and Rana were the ones who called shots in Nepalese academia from primary school to the universities. With increasing openness of the society, these feudal rulers could no longer hold their control in the academia and had to release their control. After restoration of democracy, there have been more efforts in our education sector which were, initially, not devoid of good intentions.

Like those politicians who put the democracy itself at the peril by their own infighting and hunger for power, our universities are also witnessing similar problems. And the problems in our universities are mainly due to our own university administrators. As a matter of fact, some of our university administrators are so cunning that they would even give a typical Nepali politician a run for his money. Whatever malaise is afflicting our national polity is present in our academic polity also. Corruption, nepotism, and greed for power all are visible in our academia. Instead of streamlining and helping the nation get rid of imbalances in our educational sector, some of our administrators are busy entrenching their hold and their clan. The universities of Nepal, therefore, too need to be operated upon to bring in total transparency in their dealings and programs.

The recent political changes in Nepal have ushered in a new era and people are dismantling vestiges of old regime. The parliament, while respecting popular sentiment, lost no time in making the king powerless. Similarly, other relevant political changes were also effected by the "proclamation of the house of the representatives-2063." Now, it appears that the politicians have acted quite hurriedly on the issues concerning their interests only. The parliamentarians and the government are yet to assess ground realities on other sectors. If they think that by changing our political system only, they would be able to change the course of Nepal, then it will be a mistake. Apart from the political space, another important issue that needs redressed is our academia.

The educational system is today directionless and is subject to pulls and pressures from different quarters. Similarly, the new universities too have not been able to shoulder national responsibilities. The recent media coverage on Kathmandu University is a pointer to the fact that this university is now turning into a private property of Suresh Raj Sharma and Sitaram Adhikary. As a matter of fact, when the university was established in 1991 by the act of parliament, everybody thought that there would be another university to share the burden on Tribhuvan University. But, in the name of participation of the private sector, the administrator duo of Kathmandu University have been successful in preventing governmental intervention for more than a decade. However, this relative autonomy of Kathmandu University is accompanied by another greater evil called nepotism and corruption. In loktantric Nepal this symbol of Nepotism needs to demolished as soon as possible. Only then the centuries old nexus between education and nepotism will come to an end in Nepal.