Nepal Educational Background

Though the first school was established in Nepal in 1853, education remained the domain of the elite until recent decades; only in the last fifty years has the system been expanded to provide services to all Nepalese citizens. There has been varying effectiveness in this aim; according to the last census completed in the country, the literacy rate was only 48%, with a large gender gap noticed; the female rate lags the male literacy rate by almost an astounding 30%, a number that should be completely unacceptable to any modern nation. The female literacy rates in the country remain amongst the lowest in the world. In the far west of the country, the female literacy rates hover around 14%. There are currently about 26,000 schools in the country, 415 colleges, and 2 universities, though many of these colleges are private and of dubious reputation. As can be expected in a developing world country beset by a myriad of governance and security issues, there are copious challenges facing the educational system in Nepal in the present day. The biggest issues can be seen in the realms of resources and funding, which are problems that exist across the spectrum in the country, and with inequalities that remain between classes/castes and genders in the country. In a country where 5.5 million students and 150,000 teachers are part of the educational system, the government's annual budget is an astoundingly low $98 million.

Schools in Nepal can be broken down into three categories: public, which receive government grants, institutional schools, which rely on NGO sources or are privately funded by the students; and community schools, which are run by the local people and do not receive outside funding. Education in government schools, grades 1-10, is free of cost. Private school education is often attainable only for the elites, as the schools that are not sponsored by NGO's are often very expensive. The language of instruction in the schools is Nepali, the national language of the country (though it is only spoken by a little over half of the ethnically diverse population).


Compulsory education is only present in five districts of the country; in many of the outlying, rural areas of the country, there is no government mandate for schooling. This fact, in combination with weak oversight of international law, creates a large problem of child labor in the country.

Sri Lanka-Education Background Information

Sri Lanka Educational Background




Fortunately for the students of Sri Lanka, and unfortunately, for the Project, the students are enjoying their summer holidays at the same time that I am here to visit some schools. Thus, all I have been able to manage up until this point is to talk to parents and observe the buildings from the outside. I have also done some research into the background of the educational system here in beautiful Sri Lanka. The overall impression that I get is very impressive; in regular communication with Sri Lankans on the street, the general grasp of the English language (a valid indicator of educational progress seeing that this is one of the languages taught in the Sri Lankan curriculum) is quite high. Though there are variances, clearly indicators of socioeconomic status in a developing country, the general air of the school buildings is impressive; they seem to be well maintained and in good working order. I am anxious to enter some of these buildings and see them from the inside, but this will have to wait at least another week until the vacations are finished. Until then, here is some background information on the education system.
Sri Lanka spends 5.4% of its GDP on education, and figure that is quite high in comparison to other developing nations. The literacy rate in the country is a very impressive 92%, which is the highest in South Asia and one of the highest in Asia, a very impressive fact for a developing country in a region that includes economic powerhouses such as South Korea and China. The education system in the country has a long history, starting with Buddhist monastic colleges established many centuries B.C. by the Buddhist kings of the era. In 1938, after many centuries of colonial rule and about a decade before self governance, schools in Sri Lanka were made free to citizens by government decree. Education in the country is compulsory until grade 9 (age 14), at which time students can decide to continue with school or to drop out. Currently in Sri Lanka, there are three separate types of schools: National Schools, which fall under the jurisdiction of the national Ministry of Education and tend to be the "elite" institutions; Provincial Schools, which fall under the control of local governments, and are more challenged by budgetary constraints, and private/international schools, which do not fall under the jurisdiction of the government of Sri Lanka. Tertiary education in Sri Lanka is also free to students, but extremely competitive, and many of the graduates of these institutions remains unemployed due to weak demand in the domestic job market. Less that 16% of applicants to these universities are admitted, and less than half of those admitted graduate. Admission is based on a very highly competitive national examination. To combat some of these issues, the Ministry of Education has started vocational training in many parts of the country.

Tanzania Educational Background Information

Tanzania Educational Background

Education is compulsory in Tanzania for only 7 years, or until the student reaches the age of 15. As in Kenya, primary school fees were abolished in the last decade, but parents are still responsible for paying all the other costs of attending school, including uniforms, materials, and general school supplies, which is a large burden for many families in Tanzania (the country ranked 151^st out of 180 countries in the UN Development Index). Secondary schools are not subsidized by the government, and students must pay to attend them. Interestingly enough, all instruction at the secondary level must be done in English. I found this fact interesting because in daily interactions with the Tanzanian people, both in the urban areas of Arusha and Dar Es Salaam, as well as the rural areas that I visited, the overall English proficiency was much lower than that seen in Kenya. Surrounded by a group of high school students in Singida, I was surprised to find only one to be even basically communicative in English. Seeing that all secondary level education must be conducted in English, this was startling, to say the least. The overall pace of life in Tanzania is much slower than that in Kenya, and there is much less transparency on the governmental level, despite less gross mismanagement of public funds by officials; this slower pace is also witnessed in the slower pace of educational reform and overall educational progress in the country, despite decades of governmental socialist leanings.

Kenya Background Educational Information

Kenya Educational Background

Kenya has one of the highest literacy rates in Africa, and its educational system is testament to a focus on improving the lives of the nation’s youth. Recently, Kenya has abolished school fees for all primary school students. Kenya is run on an 8-4-4 system, which means 8 years of primary school, 4 years of secondary school, and 4 years of university. There is currently a push in the country to abolish fees for secondary school as well. The abolition of school fees for primary school in Kenya has led to an explosion in the number of enrolled students in the system, and has also led to overcrowding and a severe shortage of teachers in the public school system. Kenyans value education highly, and thus, there are many private schools for them to choose from which offer less crowding and better learning conditions. There are also 30 universities in Kenya at the current time, though many choose to go abroad for higher education, with the United States one of the largest recipients of Kenyan students. An interesting personal note; when I first arrived in Kenya and was talking to the director of education in Lukenya, who oversaw the four separate schools in the rural campus, she said with pride that Kenya exported many teachers to other countries in the region, which I also heard from others in Kenya and Tanzania. It is interesting to go back and find that there is a severe shortage of teachers in the country at this time when they are sending so much valuable labor to other countries. Though plagued by the corruption of many governments in the region, Kenya is also home to a very open press, and thus, its people are cognizant of many of their government’s shortcomings, including in the area of education, a strong reason behind the granting of free universal primary schooling by President Kibaki before the last election cycle in Kenya.