End of privatization of education in Nepal; A farcry?

Maoist vice chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai has said his party is in favour of doing away with the private education as it is creating two categories of manpower.

Speaking at a programme in Banepa of Kavre on Tuesday, Bhattarai maintained that providing education to the citizens is a state liability and that the private sector's involvement in education should be ended.

                     Private education is to be blamed for creating unequal social classes, he said.

Bhattarai, however, did not elaborate how or when the Maoist party would push for replacing the private investment in the education sector.

                    Now, let’s think of the good, bad and the ugly(literally) of this if it gets a go ahead:

*The Good:

·        Similar education to all will close the gap between people to some extent as he says. He is right to some extent!

·        Government can then implement education system that produces the right kind of manpower they need.

·        Standardization of education meaning a graduate from Palpa would have to be somewhat similarly qualified to the one from Kathmandu. (it is good that he thinks health and education are govt. liability and his focus on investment in education as well as his commitment to bring along open university.)

*The Bad:

·        Thousands of jobs will be lost causing the unemployment to rise drastically unless the government comes up with a trick from his pocket.

·        Lack of (decrease of) competition between schools. Even though private education is relatively expensive, because of high competition in the major cities, people now have access to quality education at a reasonable price.

·        Even though government might get its money back eventually, as of given time, the time and money that the government needs to invest is way out of reach. For e.g. just a couple of months ago, the banks stopped giving loans against land and also govt was struggling to pay the regular salary to the govt. office clerks.

*The Ugly:

·        As good as the prospect of equal education sounds good, Nepalese government barely can manage to ensure enough food for the people. It probably would have been a good idea if the gap between the rich and the poor hadn’t been this large as it is now and if the government was stable and had enough resources to ensure good education.

So it looks like he is all talks on this one! Just like one of them once said they are going to make Switzerland of Nepal!! Cliché much!? LOL @ this facebook group"IF-prachandra-will-b-da-president-Again-NEpal-will-change-into-switzerland/11124490557808" I like to think as the no. as the no. of years it will take!

What do you think this means to the nation? Comment here!