Education is the first condition for the development of any country. It is said that the country will not be able to accelerate its development until all citizens have access to quality education. Therefore, globally, it is said that at least 20 percent of the annual budget of the country should be allocated. It is also mentioned as a priority in the political manifesto published by the political party. But no political party is active in implementation.

The problem of the past has been repeated in the budget of the next financial year 2082/83 brought by the government. In the budget history of Nepal, when UML leader Surendra Pandey was the finance minister, 17.11 percent of the total budget was allocated for education in the fiscal year 2067/68. Since then, the budget of the education sector, which has been continuously declining, could not be increased this time. In the coming year, the budget has been allocated less than the current year in terms of percentage. While 10.94 percent of the budget has been allocated in the current year, only 10.75 percent of the budget has been allocated to education in the next year. However, compared to other ministries, education has the highest budget.

Not only education, but any sector requires resources for adequate budget allocation. Due to lack of resources, it can be understood that the government allocated the budget in a frugal manner . But the education sector should have been given more priority than other sectors . Because the lack of adequate investment in education means that we are not serious about building the future.

In the past few decades, despite the implementation of policies and programs such as implementation of federalism, school sector reform program, revision of the Education Act, and conditional grant system, the expected improvement in terms of access, quality, equality and inclusiveness of education has not been achieved . The budget for the financial year 2082/83 announced by the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel last Thursday seems to be a mix of challenges and opportunities in the education sector like the previous years.

Although the share of the budget in education is low, some policies and programs have raised hopes for the qualitative improvement of education . For example, the decision to implement an incentive program based on academic results in 100 schools can be expected to improve competitiveness, transparency and school management. However, it is clear that the grant of Rs. 25 lakh per school is limited. For its long-term effectiveness, along with budget increase, a strong monitoring and evaluation system is also necessary. Likewise, actions such as re-mapping schools, reviewing teacher positions, and merging schools are practical from the point of view of maximum utilization of resources . However, while implementing such plans, it is necessary to pay attention to the spirit of the community, the accessibility of students and the standards of inclusive education .

To solve the shortage of subject-specific expert teachers for quality education, the plan to create a teacher bank in collaboration with the university and to mobilize young graduates as volunteer teachers seems very far-sighted . This program can prove to be effective in addressing teacher shortages in mathematics, science and English. Likewise, I think that the decision to adopt the virtual teaching system is a positive initiative towards timely and technology-friendly education. However, lack of necessary infrastructure, digital materials and teachers' skills in technology seems to be a serious challenge . Without digital access, electricity, internet connectivity, and trained teachers, there is a risk that technology use will be limited to slogans.  The plan to benefit 28 lakh students under the

mid-day meal program and to distribute free sanitary pads to 13 lakh girl students in schools is very welcome. It can be expected to significantly improve regular school attendance, especially in the education of boys and girls. Such social programs increase access to education and also increase interest in education among children and parents. Increasing the salaries of early childhood development assistants and school staff is a positive effort to help increase their morale, which will also contribute to service sustainability, quality and professional accountability.

But, next to such good plans, serious challenges also exist . According to the logic of the government, due to lack of resources, sufficient budget has not been allocated in the education sector. But actually investing in education is not an expense, but an investment in human capital formation, which in the long run increases economic productivity, social sustainability and self-reliance. 

Not investing in education means not being serious about the country's future. The weakness is that the expected attention in the budget is not given to aspects like capacity building of teachers, curriculum based training, preparation of technology-friendly learning . The introduction of new policies and plans is positive, but there is a risk that these plans will be ineffective due to poor coordination, technical efficiency, and lack of monitoring at the implementation level.

Under the implementation of federalism, the policy of managing secondary education examinations through provinces and the decision to convert conditional grants into financial equalization can be an important step towards strengthening the federal education administration. But the institutional capacity of the provincial and local levels is still weak, due to which policy implementation may become challenging. 

Even in terms of higher education, the budget seems to have made some long-term reform efforts . For example, targeting scholarships for higher education to students from poor, disadvantaged and remote areas and curbing the trend of going abroad is a good start. Adopting an attractive visa policy to enroll foreign students in the university can also be important from the point of view of internationalization .

The government's approach towards technical and vocational education is promising. Next year, the plan to train 26,900 youth for a period of more than six months, the establishment of model technical schools in each province and the policy of allowing students who are studying technical fields in schools to use the resources of those schools are strategic steps towards employment-oriented education and self-sufficient manpower production .

Overall, the education budget of 2082/83 seems to have made some significant efforts towards the qualitative and inclusive reform of the education sector. However, the total size of the budget is not at a level that reflects the importance of education . The government has introduced a policy in education, but unless its implementation, monitoring and resource management can be strengthened, there will be a danger that the policy will be limited to abstract slogans .

Education is not an expense, it is an investment in the future. It is necessary to ensure that the education budget is not only increased, but that it is used effectively. To build an inclusive, quality, technology-friendly and responsive education system, it is now necessary to maintain coordination between policy, practice and resource management. If Nepal dreams of becoming a prosperous nation, it should be able to work on the education sector as the first priority.