Misleading propaganda will not derail educational reforms: Minister Pokharel

Kathmandu: Minister for Education and Sports, Sasmit Pokharel, has said that misleading publicity was doing the rounds to influence the ongoing suggestion-soliciting process for educational reforms in Madhesh Province.

The Minister assured that such misleading propaganda would not derail the government’s effort to reform the education sector.

In a post shared on his social media account on Saturday, Minister Pokharel said the context of an untoward incident during an interaction held in Siraha and Saptari districts had been distorted to create a commotion.

Pokharel shared that more than 100 students, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders have already participated in such interactions. He also clarified that his team had to leave the programme venue after two individuals created a disturbance, affecting the participation of others.

He accused that an attempt had been made to misrepresent the entire incident by circulating a video clip of less than a minute.

The Minister acknowledged that everyone had the right to dissent in a democratic system. Nevertheless, he argued that it was inappropriate to form an opinion based solely on a short video without understanding the full context.

Minister Pokharel announced that the education reform campaign would continue despite the incident.

The team last Monday visited a school for deaf children and a madrasa in Siraha to interact with students. During the interactions, they also collected feedback from around eight to 10 schools in those districts.

Taking to his social media account, Minister Pokharel expressed, “We came to the ground not for political stunts or publicity but to bring real and positive change to the education sector.”

He was confident that people would ultimately judge the government’s delivery and intent.

In his post, he informed that the government is soliciting suggestions and feedback from students, teachers, parents, and stakeholders in various districts to amend the National Curriculum Framework, 2076 BS.

Consultations are also being held on initiatives such as ‘Book-Free Friday’ and ‘Skills in Education’ so as to make school education more practical, skill-oriented, and relevant to the times.

According to Minister Pokharel, the Framework would be enforced from the upcoming academic year.

It may be noted that the Curriculum Development Centre under the Ministry of Education and Sports has begun the first phase of consultations in 28 districts across all seven provinces from September 9, with the campaign scheduled to continue until September 15.

The second phase will cover all 77 districts. RSS