Rift between school and higher education will be bridged: Education Minister

Kathmandu: Minister for Education, Science, and Technology Sumana Shrestha has said that there exists a big gap between school education and higher education, and the government has initiated work to bridge this gap.

Speaking in the meeting of the House of Representatives, the Health and Information Technology Committee today, she said the universities’ leadership has been urged to devise plans to produce skilled human resources for the country to create employment opportunities as this is the common goal of the school education and the higher education.

The Education Minister made it clear that the government is taking initiatives to stop the anomalies and aberrations in the Tribhuvan University (TU). TU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Keshar Jung Baral opined that the overall reforms including the academic one in the university would be difficult until the political parties continued to run their sister organisations in the university.

Expressing the commitment to implement the university’s academic calendar from the next year, he said the university also has a plan to stop the exodus of youth students going abroad in the name of higher studies. In the meeting, the lawmakers pointed out the various anomalies in the country’s oldest university, including the over-politicization and the problem of leaking exam questions at various times.

They urged the university to take steps to address these issues. Sports Minister points to a dearth of the budget for sports infrastructure development Also speaking in the committee meeting, Minister for Youth and Sports, Biraj Bhakta Shrestha has pointed out the dearth of budget for the infrastructure development in the sports sector and for motivating the sportspersons.

He said there shortage of budget for developing the cricket stadium at Tribhuvan University into an international standard cricket stadium.

Similarly, Minister Shrestha said there was a dearth of budget to upgrade other major cricket stadiums and construct new ones. He informed that 253 athletes have been provided training within the country and abroad in preparation for the 19th Asian Games.

The Minister also said that homework is being done for amending the sports-related laws and the National Youth Policy.