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Revising community colleges in Nepal: Preparing all students for success

Tue, March 27, 3:00 to 4:30pm, Hilton Reforma, Floor: 2nd Floor, Don Diego 4 Section A

Proposal

This presentation analyzes policy discussions with higher education leaders from Nepal regarding the creation of alternative models of higher education based on existing community-based colleges. In November, 2011, a conference was held in Kathmandu in which the National Planning Commission and University Grants Commission collaborated with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Bank began to design a higher education policy framework to accommodate the increasing number of students wanting access to higher education every year (UGC, 2014).
The presentation is placed in the context of a post-conflict reform process in which the emphasis is on poverty alleviation, creation of jobs, and strengthening the newly achieved democracy through social harmony. Although significant progress has been made toward providing basic education, higher education is still a distant dream for a staggering majority of qualified youth. Nepalese higher education gross enrolment ratio of 17.11 % is one of the lowest in South Asia (The World Bank 2014). At the thirteenth South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit held in Dhaka in November 2005, the leaders of these South Asian nations noted the achievements of the Member States during recent years in primary education and stressed in order to meet the challenges of all seven member countries, they must make important strides in the areas of science, technology, and higher education. As described in the World Bank’s 2000 report “Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and Promise,” Nepal is no exception to many other developing countries, with a dual challenge of expanding their higher education system and improving quality, all within continuing budgetary constraints. Methods include content analysis, historical analysis and comparative analysis of educational reform efforts in neighboring countries.
Findings show that an alternative system of higher education in Nepal is needed to overcome high unemployment rate, illiteracy, social-cultural discrimination, gender discrimination, and underprepared manpower in the country. There are limited vocational or community-based colleges that promote job oriented, work related skills for adult students in Nepal. Although some vocational and technical colleges(VET) offer a wide range of programs to help students and communities in Nepal, there are some clear distinctions that remove them from the university sector. First, Nepalese vocational and technical colleges are structured in such a way that they do not give students a pathway to university education. Secondly, existing curricula is different as the Nepal CTVET is limited, less practical, and institutions have failed to offer skills and knowledge to meet the knowledge economy demand of the Nepalese labor market. There are also no bridge courses or two year associate degree programs for students to ensure employability and competency of individual trained, life skills and communication in English. We, therefore, strongly propose the concept of the community college system as one of the effective educational models to address these major issues of Nepal. Although Nepal has vocational and technical colleges (CTEVT, 2016), these institutions are structured in such a way that they do not give students a pathway to university education as curricula is limited, less practical, and these institutions fail to offer skills and knowledge to meet the knowledge economy demand of the Nepalese labor market. There are also no bridge courses or two year associate degree programs for students to ensure employability and competency of individual trained, life skills and communication in English (Bista, 2011). Nepal does support community colleges that follow a curriculum prescribed by the university that they are affiliated with and have a deep link to the local community and provide access to students who do not live in the capital cities. This presentation shares how these institutions can become a needed change agent to help promote the labor market with skills, technology, knowledge and experience for youth. Contributions to existing knowledge include being the first research on this sector in Nepal and documentation of a changing system. This presentation supports the panel theme by providing comparative context to community colleges and global counterparts and by highlighting voices from the global East.

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