Today, technical education that produces middle-level manpower, which plays an important role in the development of the country, is plagued by various problems. The attraction of students in technical education has started to decrease. The classrooms prepared with huge investment are becoming empty.

The curriculum is outdated, even those who have graduated from these programs have stopped getting jobs. Student enrollment and completion rates in the program are declining. Among the many problems in this area, the main problems are identified and solutions are sought in this article. 

Technical education includes both formal and informal education. It prepares people to work with the necessary knowledge and skills. Promotes the development of advanced manpower, empowers individuals to establish, operate and promote enterprises and businesses in various fields by making them skilled. It helps to explore new technologies by increasing competition between service and goods producers.

plays an important role for social equality, inclusion and sustainable development. It increases the productivity of the country, makes people self-reliant and encourages entrepreneurship. As a whole, it helps in the development of the country. Considering this fact, Nepal has been conducting technical education since 95 years ago. 

In 1930, the first technical school was established in Kumari Chowk in Nepal. The Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) was established in 1989 to produce middle level technical manpower. After this, technical education has been managed through this organization. Currently, there are 1,591 technical education and vocational training institutions in Nepal. The distribution of institutions imparting technical education in the country is uneven.

Out of 753 local levels, 633 have at least one technical school or CTEVT program, while 120 local levels have not reached this type of technical education. Out of 64 programs taught under technical education, 32 programs are three-year diploma programs, 26 programs are pre-diploma level and 6 programs are school level technical programs. Towards vocational training, there is a system of short-term training on 311 subjects and skill testing. 

• Current technical education courses are outdated. It is imperative to review such courses and include new courses that have high demand in the market. Emphasis should be placed on expanding the field of study by adding subjects like information technology, food processing, entrepreneurship, pharmaceutical, textile.

Nepal's technical education has emphasized more on the supply side, not paying enough attention to the demand side of the market. Due to the lack of courses according to market demand, the enrollment rate of students in this program is decreasing and only 29% of the total capacity is enrolled in the technical stream of the school level, 52% of the total capacity in the 3-year diploma and 19% of the total capacity in the 18-month technical training.

In the year 2078, out of total enrollment capacity of 1,07,441 students, only 54,871 were enrolled. This is only 51 percent of the total capacity. To solve this problem, CTEVT should review the curriculum so that there is a balance between supply and demand, keeping in mind the market demand.

Analyzing the demand of the market and creating a demand-driven program, managing a program that combines learning and earning for students, identifying the skills of the semi-trained workforce, and developing a new curriculum to teach subjects missing from the curriculum seem to be necessary. 

Lack of skilled subject teachers is another problem in technical education. A minimum of three technical teachers are required to conduct technical program classes in any one pre-depot. Currently 2.88 teachers are available per program head. Among the available teachers, one-fourth are permanent and three-fourth are temporary teachers on service contracts. In the same way, only 4 teachers are available out of the 5 teachers required for the technical field of the school level and about 20 percent of the necessary teacher posts have not been created.

Even in the technical side of the school, 25 percent of teachers work as part-time teachers. Of the 10 teachers required for the main program or the three-year diploma course of this category, only 6 are currently available. Among the available teachers, Sardar has one permanent teacher and five teachers on contract. Only a quarter of available teachers are trained and others have no teaching training. 

Due to lack of necessary training and job stability, there is a shortage of skilled teachers in technical education. To solve these problems, according to the national standards, subject teachers should be appointed and the necessary training should be given. Stability should be ensured by supplying teachers according to national standards in technical community schools and religious institutions under CTEVT.

Newly appointed teachers should be given induction training and put into teaching and refresher training should be provided every three years to update their knowledge about changing technology. It should be monitored whether the required number of subject teachers are employed according to the national standards in private institutions affiliated to CTEVT. To solve the problem of subject teachers in technical schools in urban areas with a large population, the concept of multi-technical schools should be promoted.

Inadequate practical practice is another major problem in technical education. The duration of all short-term technical courses is fixed at 1,696 hours. Of this, 576 hours (34 percent) are designated for on-the-job training and 1,120 hours (66 percent) for classroom instruction. Most of the organizations have not been able to provide good job training.

The duration of the technical stream of schooling is 5 years with four years from class 9 to 12 and one year of job training. Of this, four years are in school and one year is for on-the-job training. Due to the lack of proper management of job training even at the technical level of the school level, its graduates have not been able to become competitive in the market due to the passing of classes based on theoretical knowledge only.

To solve this problem, the timing of job training should be strictly implemented. In all the short term technical courses, it is necessary to make provision for 576 hours of time allocated for job training training to be mandatorily put into practical practice. Educational institutions should make advance agreements with industrial and commercial establishments and think about the option of gaining practical knowledge by working as interns. Even in school level technical education, 6 months after completion of class 10 and another 6 months after completion of 12th class should be arranged for employment training. 

The completion rate of students in technical education is poor. In 2074, the pre-diploma completion rate was 38 percent and the diploma completion rate was only 52 percent. The retention rate of students enrolled in the diploma level was 59 percent and the retention rate of students in the technical stream at the school level was only 58 percent.

To solve these problems, a review of the curriculum with the aim of preparing students to work in the industry is necessary. The teaching method should be modified by paying attention to the practical knowledge of the students and arrangements should be made to make graduates who can get jobs in industry and professional institutes after completion of education. Due to this, the job prospects of the students will increase and the retention rate and completion rate of the students will also increase.

Poor employment after technical education is another important problem in this sector. The employment rate of students who have completed technical education in secondary school is 29 percent, those who have completed pre-diploma is 61 percent and the employment rate of diploma level is only 66 percent. In order to increase the employment rate after completion of studies, collaboration with the industrial and commercial sector can be done to produce the necessary technical graduates for them. Agreements should be made with these sectors to produce industry-ready graduates and guarantee employment.

Absence of courses like entrepreneurship in secondary technical education is another problem. Since the course did not include entrepreneurship topics, the students did not develop the thought of conducting self-entrepreneurship after completing the studies. Therefore, the problem of students looking for jobs in the country after completing their studies and going abroad if they do not find them is increasing. In order to solve this problem, in addition to theoretical and practical knowledge in the current technical education, entrepreneurship should be taught and self-entrepreneurship should be encouraged in addition to jobs. 

Current technical education curricula are outdated and focus on limited subjects such as engineering, health and agriculture. In order to solve such problems, market demand should be recognized and old courses reviewed and new courses with high demand in the market such as information technology, food processing, entrepreneurship, pharmaceutical, textile, etc. should be added and the fields of study should be diversified. 

It seems that instead of making the manpower produced through technical education more skilled and competitive by giving them technical training, they encourage them to go for higher education. To solve this problem, it is necessary to organize higher studies within its own 'domain' to develop specialization in technical education. The National Vocational Qualification Framework provides higher level graduates such as: Specialist Worker (Advanced Diploma Level 5), Graduate Level (Level 6), Post Graduate Level (Level 7) and Graduate Level (Level 8) by providing reading and skill tests to pass the Diploma (Level 4). After that, it seems necessary to discourage the tendency to go to the university and maintain expertise in the technical field. 

Poor scholarship distribution program is another manageable problem in technical education. In the year 2078, 75 percent of the scholarship allocated for pre-diploma and 27.5 percent of the scholarship allocated for diploma were not used. Therefore, it seems necessary to improve the current scholarship distribution system and organize the distribution of scholarships to economically weaker students.

The examination system of technical education is also problematic. Tests to assess student achievement are theory-focused and achievement is assessed in terms of percentages as in general education. The examination system should be improved by improving the examination system by making provision for evaluation of competence through practical assessment in the workplace rather than theoretical.