A video titled 'Boarding School Students' Marriage' is currently going viral on social media. A private school in Lumbini Province organized a 'Cultural Fest-2082' program at the school in the second week of December. In the program, a scene can be seen in the section 'A Glimpse of Marriage Culture Among the Brahmin Community' where two students studying in the school were married by setting up a marriage pavilion. Many people are protesting against this.

This is just one example of the efforts made by schools to teach sensitive social issues. News and scenes of schools celebrating Dashain by applying Dashain tika and jamara during the sixteenth Shraddha, and celebrating Krishna Ashtami by making children Radha and Krishna a week before Krishna Ashtami can still be found circulating on social media.

Such practices are often done in the name of cultural or moral education or under the pretext of teaching rituals. How much morality have such practices made children? How much rituals have they taught? It is not known. Schools organize such programs due to lack of knowledge or motivated by some selfish motive.

In the name of showing themselves different from other schools or following what one school has done, schools organize various activities on sensitive social issues and involve students. Baramjhiya's peda business and our style of running a school are similar. One school gets married, another gets married without delay. What one has done, the other should do the same. Schools rarely develop ‘identity’. 

Religion and belief systems are sensitive social issues. Teachers and schools should be careful when teaching such subjects. Such subjects should not be taught in a haphazard manner to make them appear different from others, without evaluating the impact they have, and just for entertainment. Due to the lack of understanding of schools and teachers and the complete trust of parents in schools, schools have arbitrarily involved students in learning activities.

This is a betrayal of parents and children. The attitudes of teachers, parents and society also work to encourage such activities. Such activities continue in schools when the mindset is that ‘school is the only place of learning, learning is only from schools and teachers, students should learn what they learn in all schools’. Children are falling prey to the competition to appear different from others in the name of running schools.

Parents expect schools to teach what needs to be taught. Even if the school involves students in unacceptable activities, parents generally remain silent because the school covers such activities with the coat of cultural and moral education. Whatever the school does, they think that it is ‘right’. Since such activities and practices provide momentary entertainment, it seems that there is little opposition to such activities. 

The idea that ‘home, family, community and social organizations are the repository of knowledge, and that more can be learned from the society and family members in which one lives than from books and teachers’ does not seem to have developed among parents and teachers. Since the home and family and society could not be made the center of learning, learning could not go beyond the reach of the school, which is why schools seem to be doing both permissible and unacceptable activities under the pretext of learning. 

Now let’s talk about the incident where a school in Butwal set up a wedding hall and taught marriage rituals. The subject of teaching about marriage and teaching about marriage through acting and practicing is not the same. It is not necessary to teach all concepts through practice and acting. Schools should teach about marriage. Students should also learn about it. However, practicing religious rituals in schools in the name of teaching is not academically acceptable.

Schools are public and democratic places. The purpose of schools is not to promote any particular faith or belief system. The purpose of these institutions is to develop critical thinking, increase social cohesion and build shared civic values. Public institutions should be impartial and neutral. In a pluralistic society like ours, schools should be even more so religiously neutral.

Individual and voluntary religious expression may be acceptable, but institutional religious practice is not acceptable in a place like school. Religious practice in schools subtly puts pressure on minority students. Schools should be an emotionally safe place for every student.

Practices that isolate or stigmatize students are morally unacceptable. Schools that are established for the purpose of imparting religious education can conduct such practices and performances when appropriate for the age and grade. However, schools that are established with a different purpose should not engage in such activities. 

Children are developing moral beings. They are not yet fully capable of playing the same social roles as adults. Making young children realistically act out complex social roles like marriage pushes them into adult roles prematurely, which creates a confusion between learning and actual social roles. Pushing children into the adult world prematurely is dangerous.

Marriage is a legal, emotional, cultural, and social institution associated with adult life. It is not just a simple social role that can be ‘acted out’. The forms of marriage vary across societies and cultures. Marriage helps adults to cooperate, support each other, and share responsibilities. The ideas, roles, and practices surrounding marriage have changed over time. Marriage creates new relationships between individuals, families, communities, and society.

People understand the meaning and importance of marriage differently according to their cultures, experiences, and beliefs. Marriage requires mutual respect, equality, and responsibility. Marriage is not something that can be easily understood by acting it out, it is not just an activity done for fun. Marriage varies across cultures, religions, legal systems, family structures, etc. Accepting a single model of marriage as a general rule, silencing other realities, and trying to make everything real is putting learning and students' lives at risk. Such practices go against pluralism and inclusivity. 

Sensitive social issues can be taught by participating in and observing programs in families and communities rather than by acting them out in the classroom and school. They can also be taught using stories, case studies, discussions, and visual materials. Rather than teaching how to get married, why has society respected marriage? Why has it been valued? We should teach. Schools are a place for knowledge exploration, not a tool for building trust.

This topic needs to be understood deeply by teachers and school administration. Under the concept of marriage, central ideas or concepts such as single parenthood, extended family, and remarriage should be taught. Education can be done by involving students in various activities based on important central concepts such as respect, care, responsibility, and consent related to marriage.

Education should prepare students for life, but should not force them to live life ahead of time. Schools should expand understanding of concepts, not impose beliefs. Moral reasoning should be developed, roles should not be imposed. Childhood and learning should be protected and ethically respected. Teachers should collaborate with families when teaching sensitive topics. A clear boundary should be drawn between cultural education and social acting. Teachers should create age-appropriate, inclusive, and reflective learning activities for students. 

Schools are not meant to imitate adult social institutions in the name of teaching. They are meant to develop critical thinking, moral reasoning, and intercultural understanding. Schools should respect children's developmental stage, autonomy, and diversity. Schools should be faith-neutral. Schools should teach about religion, but not institutionalize religious practice. Schools should not prioritize only one belief system.

Marriage and family life should be studied conceptually. When teaching sensitive topics like marriage through realistic role-playing, students need to play the role of adults. Children are not carriers of adult roles. Assigning students the identity of ‘husband/wife’, imitating real marital roles, and reinforcing gender or cultural stereotypes are not practices that schools should follow. This is directly and indirectly hindering the overall development of students. Who will take responsibility if those children who become brides and grooms tomorrow become victims of neglect? Who will bear the risks that such actions pose in the future? 

The content taught in schools should be in line with the intellectual, emotional, and moral development of the students. It should be age and class appropriate. If acting is done, it should be done carefully and symbolically only. Learning should not be based on experiential practice that imitates adult reality. It is not good to perform all the rituals by creating a yagya mandap while performing a marriage act. Schools are educational places.

They are not places to practice religious or social rituals. The places to practice religious, social, and cultural rituals are society and family. There cannot be a bigger laboratory than that, the classroom and the school compound. Schools should embrace inclusion and diversity. Inclusion and diversity should be at the center of learning. Rather than making any one model ‘normal’ or ‘ideal’, it should be taught by representing different religions, cultures and family structures. It is not good to engage students in learning activities by making any one model the standard. 

Teachers are facilitators, not religious authorities. Teachers should play the role of neutral facilitators who encourage inquiry, not impose beliefs. Parents should be informed in advance and their prior consent should be obtained when teaching students about sensitive material. Students should be protected from activities that embarrass, label or isolate them. Children learn best through inquiry, self-reflection and dialogue. Such practices should be embedded in learning. Respect for diversity, autonomy and children’s rights is also a moral and educational responsibility of us adults. 

Nepal’s education system is deeply rooted in social, cultural and religious traditions. For centuries, education was provided in gurukuls, viharas and community religious institutions, where moral and spiritual formation is intertwined with education. Our schools are institutions operating in a complex socio-cultural context shaped by deep religious traditions, diverse ethnic identities, and strong family and community influences. Constitutional secularism, a universal educational framework, child rights, and growing cultural, linguistic, and gender diversity in the classroom have enriched the classroom. 

Nepal is a common home for Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Christian, Kirat, and various indigenous belief systems. The Constitution of Nepal (2072) declares Nepal a secular state, meaning that the state is neutral toward all religions and ensures freedom of belief. While religion and marriage are integral parts of Nepali society, formal schooling in multicultural educational contexts involves sensitive social issues.

There, teaching is also embedded with philosophical, ethical, and educational questions. Religion and marriage are not just private matters but collective social practices shaped by caste, ethnicity, gender norms, and community expectations. Educational philosophies, moral philosophies, and political philosophies have argued that while education should teach about religion and social institutions, it is not appropriate to engage in institutionalized religious practices or practices that mimic adult life. 

Despite legal prohibitions in some areas of Nepal today, child marriage remains a social reality. Therefore, this type of dramatization of marriage in schools seems to have become more sensitive. When schools use realistic drama (such as a wedding ceremony or role-playing) to teach marriage, it risks reinforcing traditional gender inequalities, normalizing heterosexual models, and pushing children into adult roles prematurely. 

Educationists have warned against the practice of imposing adult roles on children before they have developed the necessary emotional and moral capacities. Marriage involves consent, intimacy, and legal responsibility. These aspects cannot be meaningfully imitated by children. It is even more dangerous to present a sensitive topic like marriage as a joke and make it a subject of entertainment. 

Such practices can also conflict with Nepal's commitment to child protection and gender equality. While experiential learning is useful, not all knowledge should be learned through role-playing. Education is not a practice of adult life, but a process of developing understanding. 

Schools should adopt the principle of neutrality when teaching sensitive social topics. Topics like marriage should be taught conceptually, not through realistic role-playing. Sensitive topics should be shared transparently with families to build trust. Teachers should not impose any beliefs or roles on students. Instead, they should encourage inquiry and self-reflection. 

In Nepal's changing educational environment, schools must strike a balance between cultural traditions and philosophical, ethical, and child-centered principles. While religion and marriage are central to Nepali social life, institutionalized religious practices and realistic role-playing of marriage in schools pose risks of exclusion, coercion, and premature adulthood.