Some 25 kilometers away from Kesharmahal in Kathmandu, which houses the Ministry of Education, is the Himalaya Secondary School in Banepa. Standing out from the average students is Rupak Shrestha, a student of class ten. Rupak’s overall ambition in life is to become an actor.

Some hundred meters away is another school – Siddartha Academy Higher Secondary. Subanam Shakya is a student in class ten. Her wish is to become a successful doctor.

While Himalaya Secondary School is a public school run on government grants, Siddartha Academy is an institutional or private school. The dreams, aims and objectives of the students in the two schools are rather different, their destinations are different. The schools themselves become a cause of class differentiation.

Although Rupak studied in a private school till class 3, financial constraints in the family nudged him towards a public school. He topped his class in grades 6, 7 and 8, but as he rose to higher academic levels, his family burdens also grew. By the time he was in 9th grade, he ranked second, and by the 10th grade he was fourth.

“Farming and husbandry is the family calling,” says Rupak who is not much concerned over her declining academic performance. “Good grades are not needed for becoming an actor; good looks, a good voice and ability to dance are enough.”

As a daughter of Kavre Campus chief Prakash Shakya, Subanam Shakya’s family has assured her that if she fails to win a government scholarship, the family will pay for her higher education. She now spends 95 percent of her time on her studies, apart from rest periods.

“Most of my time I am busy with my studies so as to fulfil my wish to become a successful doctor,” she says.

The children of most policy makers, administrators, public servants and teachers, who live in the cities, study at private schools such as the Siddartha Academy. Siddartha Academy was established in 1983. Only a little more than a decade later, in 1997, the school succeeded in securing the board first position in the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examinations. At that time, four out of the five students at Siddartha who were asked about their future aspirations said they wanted to become successful doctors. The fifth one wanted to become a computer engineer.

At the public Himalaya Secondary School, which was established in 1962, two out of the five students similarly questioned said that they wanted to join the army, one wanted to become a nurse, another an actor and the last one had not yet decided.

“The very objectives of students at private and public schools are different,” says assistant principal at Himalaya Secondary Dhruba Prasad Bhattarai. He accuses private schools of teaching children that only doctors, engineers and pilots are considered respected citizens by society. A teacher at Siddartha Gyaneshwar Niraula, however, takes it as something positive that students want to become doctors and engineers. He points out that the essential question is whether their families have the will power and the financial means to support the children in their wish. Without both, a situation will arise where their children fall short of these goals, he says.

“Children at public schools are not driven to become something in life and so they speak more candidly about their future,” says principal of Himalaya Secondary School Tok Bahadur Shrestha. The atmosphere at school and in society is such that students in urban areas almost invariably say they want to become doctors and engineers.

“Our students may also be under the same influence”, opines founder principal of Siddartha Academy Gyan Bahadur KC.

A matter of social prestige

From the time when the Education Act (Second Amendment, 1980) opened the way for private and boarding schools, the inexplicit production of two kinds of citizens in society commenced. Over the intervening decade and half, it has become a matter of social prestige to send one’s children to private schools. Many families, which find it hard to make ends meet, have had to tighten their belts or have gone into debt in order to send their children to private school and save face. At the same time public schools – increasingly sidelined by the private schools – have become places where only the sons and daughters of the poor and less than well to do come to study. Although government investment has increased, the quality of public schools is on the decline.

When it comes to a test of capability, it is only the well off that can compete. Private schools allow children from pre-primary level onwards to handle attractive picture books, psychologically well-designed toys and other educational materials. Public schools by contrast are hard pressed to afford even black boards. They are dependent on textbooks, which the government manages to reach to the district headquarters only half way into the academic year. The quality of education in public schools is deteriorating because the foundations are weak. Although he is assistant principal at a public school, Dhurba Bhattarai says he sends his children to private school for primary level education so that they will develop a habit of studying and going to school regularly.

Problem of determining the future

Boys and girls going to private school are being pressured to say that they should become doctors and engineers. At Siddartha Academy, everyone wants to become a doctor or engineer, be it Pukar Rana or Surendra Pariyar, Roshani Shrestha or Abhinit Karna. But what does it take to become a doctor or engineer, and how does one go about it? Is it enough to secure good marks in the SLC? These students have no answer.

l Surendra, whose parents have managed to send him to Siddartha just by running an ordinary tailoring shop at Sanga, Kavre, has started saying, “I’ll try to become a doctor. I will also go for scholarships. If I don’t succeed, I’ll get myself some job or another. Failing that also, I will go to the Dalit commission and work for Dalit rights and interests.” But he doesn’t fail to say time and again that he wants to become a doctor – something he may only be saying for the sake of the school. That is not up to one’s guardians, he adds.

l It is the same story with Roshani, daughter of a farmer at Janagal. Says she: “The family is in no position to afford it. But I’ll keep trying, and if I am lucky I will end up a doctor”.
l Abhinit Karna is determined to become a computer engineer even if it means falling back partly on a sister who is studying computer engineering in Pune on a scholarship, and partly on her father’s earnings.

l Ninth grader at Himalaya Secondary Rita Shrestha has a great wish to serve as a nurse. Daughter of a minor hospital employee, she has left it up to God whether or not her wish will be fulfilled.
l Pradeep Sapkota, a tenth grade student at the same school, also dreams of studying science and becoming a doctor. But he admits that he is not financially sound and may therefore join the army in the end to serve the country. Says he: “I can study, but my parents are in no position to afford it”.

The issue of affordance

Siddartha Academy charges internal fees for regular coaching classes from 7 to 8.45 in the morning. Most students who can arrange to do so attend these classes. At Himalaya Secondary on the other hand, the school decided preparatory to the SLC to run coaching classes for two months for a monthly fee of Rs. 100. But there were no takers, complains principal Shrestha.
Students flounder at the SLC exams partly because the public schools are compelled to accommodate all students who seek admission to participate in classes, regardless of the fact that many students who are then included have previously flunked subjects like English, mathematics and science. At private schools, the students are vetted before they are admitted; pre-tests are held, no admissions are allowed in the middle grades, and those likely to fail in future are weeded out. That is why private schools have a greater rate of success in examination results.]

Shareholder burden on students

By the fees that they charge from their students, private schools that are run only on light investments manage to own their own buildings within ten years. Gyan Bahadur KC of Siddartha Academy takes much pride in the fact that although the school was only established some 20 years ago, it is now owner of all its buildings and land. It has a current enrolment of 529 students from grades one to ten. It has been running a higher secondary program also since 2001. The school staffs comprise 37 teachers and four other employees.

Himalaya Secondary with 400 students has 16 teachers and two other employees. The 16 teachers have to teach 400 students. Students at public schools are hard pressed to manage their morning and evening meals, while at private schools tiffin is something compulsory.

Rama Karanjit, a secondary level teacher at Himalaya Secondary, has put all four of her sons through public schools since she herself is a public school employee, and they have all passed in the first division. But she says that her only daughter is studying in ninth grade at a private school out of her own wish. Her stance is that everyone should be aware of the present need to close the gap between public and private schools and that it should be made compulsory for children of teachers and public servants to go to public school. Teachers will then start acting responsibly, even if only out of concern for their own children’s future. The quality of teaching at public schools has declined because the teachers send their own children to schools elsewhere and seek only to get through their 10 am to 5 pm office hours, go on leave and allow themselves to be used as political activists.

Principal KC at Siddartha Academy takes the fact that 30 percent of students produced by his school have been successful in public life as indicative of quality education. He, however, concedes that he too is responsible for the production of two kinds of citizens.
Public schools have made school uniforms on par with private establishments compulsory. Himalaya Secondary has also made uniforms and school ties compulsory. But the time has come for all to realise that uniforms and ties alone will not ensure equal quality in education. A single kind of citizenry will be produced only if both public and private schools use basically the same curriculum, teaching material and teaching methods, and if those not able to attend school are given equal opportunity for technical education. Otherwise, the likelihood of two kinds of citizenry in society will not decrease.

Bhuparaj Khadka is from Education Journalists Group