{"id":431392,"date":"2026-06-18T17:46:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/?p=431392"},"modified":"2026-06-18T17:46:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:01:26","slug":"education-sports-sector-in-governments-top-priority-education-minister-pokharel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/2026\/06\/18\/431392.html","title":{"rendered":"Education, sports sector in government’s top priority: Education Minister Pokharel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kathmandu: <\/strong>Minister for Education and Sports, Sasmit Pokharel, has said the government has given high priority to the education and sports sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Courtesy: RSS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Responding to queries raised by lawmakers on allocation headings of the Education Ministry under the Appropriation Bill, 2083, in today’s meeting of the House of Representatives, Minister Pokharel said the maximum budget has been allocated for the education and sports sector based on available sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Out of the total national budget for fiscal year 2026\/27, Rs 218.30 billion has been allocated for the education and sports sector, which is 10.28 per cent of the total budget,” he mentioned. Though this budget is less by 0.47 per cent as compared to the current fiscal year in terms of percentage, the proposed budget has increased by seven billion rupees rather than of current fiscal year in terms of results, argued the Education Minister. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He underlined that the highest 69.49 per cent budget has been allocated for school education, 11.04 per cent for higher education, 2.56 per cent for technical and vocational education and training, 1.74 per cent for sports and 15.17 per cent for management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He shared, “Out of Rs 151.69 billion budget allocated for school education sub-sector, Rs 10.45 billion has been allocated for infrastructure development.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minister Pokharel stated that in the upcoming year’s budget, funds have been allocated for skills development training suitable for the latest market demand for 7,660 people, and Rs 350 million has been allocated to conduct the SEE exam at the provincial level. He stated that out of the Rs 624 million allocated for the provincial level under the school education sector plan, Rs 276 million was allocated for physical infrastructure and Rs 275 million for teacher training. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minister Pokharel informed that, based on the number of students, a total of Rs 2.37 billion has been allocated for school infrastructure grants in partnership with local bodies, excluding 19 districts including Gorkha affected by the earthquake and Bajhang, Jajarkot, Rukum West, Manang, Mustang affected by the western Nepal earthquake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Education Minister mentioned that a budget of one billion 70 million rupees has been arranged for the management of smartboards in all community schools operating at the secondary level to progressively move towards digital learning. He stated that the arrangement for a daytime snack has been continued for students studying from early childhood classes to grade 5 in community schools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minister Pokharel stated that the budget proposal has been presented prioritising research, making higher education competitive, improving the quality of school education and maximising the use of available resources for the expansion of technical education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said, “According to the available resources, budget has also been allocated for buildings, library, laboratory, information technology and educational materials.” Minister Pokharel informed that notable steps will be taken in the coming fiscal year to ensure qualitative spending by maintaining structural and institutional reforms as well as efficient allocation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Education Minister stated that the government is clear that it is necessary to study the scholarship amounts given at all levels and the targeted groups in the coming year and make them reasonable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minister Pokharel clarified that programmes such as residential scholarships for children with disabilities, provision of affordable digital textbooks, and the operation of integrated and special schools have been continued. He informed that Rs 590 million has been allocated for the next fiscal year for the development and expansion of market-oriented educational programmes, grants for entrepreneurship development and implementation, performance grants to higher educational institutions, and development and grant activities for educational institutions based on information and technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Minister expressed the view that universities should move towards self-reliance by setting investment models instead of being too dependent on the government, but he also informed that the government will manage the minimum expenses required for universities. He shared that the current enrolment rate at the basic level is 97.7 percent and the completion rate for that level is 74 percent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Minister, various efforts have been made to bring children who are out of reach of basic education into school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Education Minister mentioned that cash prizes have been arranged for the players who win first place in the national sports competition to boost the players’ morale, as well as for those who secure first, second, and third places in the President Running Shield competition and players who set new national records. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He clarified that the Nepal government has made arrangements in the National Sports Development Regulations to honour athletes who win international competitions and enhance the nation’s prestige with a cash prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RSS<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minister Pokharel said the maximum budget has been allocated for the education and sports sector based on available sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":431393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3,4,2],"tags":[],"reporter":[],"class_list":["post-431392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-en-cover","category-english","category-en-news","category-top-stories-main"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431394,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431392\/revisions\/431394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431392"},{"taxonomy":"reporter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reporter?post=431392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}