Kathmandu: Nepal’s education department has handed over more than 12,000 government schools to the people in the past 10 years, an official said Tuesday.
“It was necessary to make the communities realise that they are the real owner of the schools in their localities,” Ganesh Poudel, deputy director of the department, told Xinhua.
Though earlier it was agreed that 2,500 schools will be handed over to the people every year, later the number was decided at 1,200, he said.
People now own 12,441 schools, one-third of the total number of government schools in operation.
The highest number of schools handed over was that of primary (Grade I to V) followed by lower secondary (Grade VI to VIII) and secondary (Grade IX and X).
A total of 8,238 primary schools were handed over to communities, while the number of lower secondary and secondary schools were 2,846 and 1,357 respectively.
Quality of the schools that are now owned by the communities has enhanced, Poudel said.
However, some partnership still remains between the government and the communities, as the handover is only related to the management. (IANS)
