A majority of the country’s public schools do not provide appropriate teaching-learning environment which has lead to poor student performance, a recent study shows. The performance audit report of the Education Review Office under the Ministry of Education shows that most public schools lack investment and have poor records in teachers’ delivery, student evaluations, teacher development and extracurricular activities.

The performance audit, published on Monday, shows that 84.4 percent of the public schools do not have ideal learning environment. 

The share of schools with appropriate teaching-learning environment took a dive from 23.3 percent in the fiscal year 2017/18 to 15.6 percent in the fiscal year 2018/19, suggesting that the number of schools with conducive learning environment is decreasing over the years. Just one school from Kanchanpur had an excellent performance, according to the study.

“The report reveals the disappointing facts and the urgency to act immediately,” said Tek Narayan Pandey, director-general at the review office.
The performance audit was conducted in 1,999 public secondary schools of 29 districts, which is around 30 percent of the country’s public high schools.

The study shows that even the government model schools are doing poorly. Among the 32 such schools, only eight (25 percent) have conducive learning environment. 

Pandey said poor student performance was a result of dismal learning-teaching environment in state-run schools. 

The public schools from Manang and Kathmandu were the best performers, while those from Bajhang and Bhojpur were the worst, according to the study.

Another study report by the review office on August 5 had shown that the learning achievement of fifth graders was gradually decreasing. Only 28 percent of grade five students grasp the mathematical concepts, while 32 percent of the students do not even learn five percent of their course by the time they complete the grade, the study found.

Similarly, the Secondary Education Examination results published in June showed a dismal performance of students from public schools.

“There is an urgent need to develop a policy for the professional development of teachers,” concludes the performance audit report. “A large number of schools still lack basic learning tools and facilities like computer, library and laboratory.”

Educationists say it is disheartening to see that the government is not taking any steps to improve the quality of education in public schools.
“Now all three tiers of government need to collaborate for the fundamental reformation in the school education,” Min Bista, a former professor at Tribhuvan University, who has conducted several researches on school education, told the Post.

He said a proper analysis of the reasons behind the underperformance needs to be analysed and the policy for improvement need to be formulated accordingly.