The government seems reluctant to increase investment in public education. When the political parties who won the elections came to power with the commitment to increase the state investment in education to 20 percent of the total budget, the budget has not been able to increase more than 11 percent.

2 trillion 11.17 billion has been allocated to the education sector in the budget presented by Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel on Thursday. This is only 10.75 percent of the total budget. In the current financial year, 10.95 percent of the budget was allocated for education. As the School Education Act is in the process of being promulgated, it seems that this year's budget has been reduced even more, contrary to the demand that the state should increase its responsibility to improve public education. In the year 080/081, 11.27 percent of the budget was allocated for education.

Education budget

• 080/081- 11.27 percent
• 081/082- 10.95 percent
• 082/083- 10.75 percent

Kathmandu University School of Education Dean Balchandra Luintel said that the government could not bring a clear blueprint in the budget for the reform of public education. The budget came according to traditional calculations. There is no budget for improving learning. The quality of teacher production seems to be lacking," he said. "The government could not even come up with a plan to improve public education. The draft of the School Education Act has also asked for investment. The government's commitment was not seen. There is no leap forward budget.'

Finance Minister Paudel presented the budget statement with some new programs, most of them old and some programs that were announced earlier but could not be completed. He said that an incentive program based on educational results will be conducted in 100 public schools. According to the program, each district will have at least one school and 2.5 million per school will be provided. Arrangements will be made for those schools to help improve the results of other schools. The model school program was conducted in the same model. 422 model schools have been announced across the country. He said that the construction of the model school under construction will be completed.

The previous program of adjusting community schools and reviewing teacher posts has been given continuity. It is mentioned in the budget that the successful management practices of community and institutional schools will be used to improve the quality of other community schools. In the policy and program presented by the government, it was criticized after it announced that public schools would be reformed in collaboration with private schools. Dean Luitel said that the government has changed the language and included this point in the budget and is going to establish the commentary that only private is good. In the

budget, it is mentioned that a teacher bank will be established in collaboration with the university to prevent shortage of English, science and mathematics teachers, and graduate students will be mobilized as volunteer teachers. The local level has been practicing the establishment of teacher banks. Even though the volunteer teachers program is old, it has not been implemented yet.

Finance Minister Poudel said that arrangements will be made for the operation and management of SEE at the provincial level. In the sub-committee of the school education bill pending in the Parliament's education committee, the parliamentarians have agreed to conduct the SEE examination. The parliamentarians are unanimous in conducting the final school level examination in class 12.

The mid-day meal provided to students up to class 5 and free sanitary pad distribution program to girl students has been continued in the budget. 10.19 billion has been allocated for the lunch of 2.8 million children and 1.29 billion has been allocated to distribute free pads to 1.3 million girl students. It is mentioned in the budget that the scholarships provided to students from the target communities and difficult Himalayan districts will be continued. The program to provide incentive scholarships to students of Musahar, Dom, Chamar communities in higher education towards medicine is still ongoing. Paudel said that 2 billion 44 crores have been allocated for scholarships.

10.16 billion has been allocated for the salary of early child development support workers (ECD teachers) and school staff working in community schools. He announced that virtual teaching system will be used in school education. The Ministry of Education has been operating a portal called 'Sikai Chowtari' since the Covid epidemic.

It is mentioned in the budget that hostel arrangements will be made for students with disabilities to complete their basic education. Finance Minister Paudel said that effective monitoring of private schools will be done by preparing national regulatory standards. The government will implement the National Educational Reform Program by modifying the President's Educational Reform Program. Even though the education program has reached the local level, there has been criticism that the budget is distributed on the basis of accessibility by conducting programs of this nature from the center. 2.72 billion has been allocated for the program. According to the budget, the physical infrastructure of schools with more than 1,500 students in the Terai Madhes, 1,000 in the mountains, and 500 in the Himalayas will be built under the program.

There is not much innovation in the budget for higher education. This year too, the issue of maintaining uniformity in university operations by creating an umbrella law related to higher education has continued. Emphasis will be placed on reducing the trend of going abroad for studies and developing manpower according to the job market. The departments and faculties of the university will be restructured," the budget said.

Restructuring the University Grants Commission and making it a regulatory body for higher education is also a program of the previous government. It is mentioned in the budget that grants will be provided to universities only based on the number of students, educational quality, infrastructure needs. Finance Minister Paudel said that the academic calendar will be published before the academic session, the implementation will be monitored and the grants of the universities that do not comply will be stopped. Universities including Tribhuvan University have implemented the calendar.

Madan Bhandari Science and Technology, Vidushi Yogamaya Himalayan Ayurveda University physical infrastructure construction and Shahid Dashrathchandra Health Sciences University are mentioned in the budget. A policy to attract foreign students to the university has been put forward. According to the recommendations of the High-Level Economic Reform Suggestion Commission, the scholarship provided in medical education is included in the budget to target students from poor, poor and remote areas. Now, apart from this, students are getting scholarships based on merit.

56 crores have been allocated to build the infrastructure of medical colleges in Bardibas, Butbal, Surkhet and Dadeldhura. Although the government announced a decade ago to establish a government medical college in each province, the plan could not be completed due to low budget. It is mentioned in the budget that study quota will be increased by revising academic standards to prevent shortage of manpower in technical subjects such as medicine, engineering, information technology, nursing etc. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had agreed with private medical college operators to increase the number of seats. There has been criticism that there is interference from the government and the prime minister level in the automatic seat allocation based on the criteria.