Children´s right to education, for whom ? A Minor Field Study - Nepal

Abstract: The purpose of this essay is to examine how Nepal has implemented article 28 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The essay focuses on subdivision 1(a) in the article which establishes that all States Parties shall make primary education compulsory and free to all children within their country. Through the ratification of the CRC the Government of Nepal is under the obligation to ensure each and every child's right to basic education. However, according to article 4 of the CRC the States Parties shall, concerning the right to education, undertake measures to the maximum extent of their available resources and, where needed, within the framework of international co-operation. The right to education is in other words not an absolute right. The essay is based on a field study which the author have conducted in Nepal between November 2000 and February 2001. The materials is based on interviews, law texts, other written documents by the Government and reports conducted by organisations such as INGOs and UN Agencies. The essay describes the implementation process of article 28 such as relevant actors and what their obligations and/or contributions in the process are. It identifies all relevant levels of the Government, from central to local, working with child rights issues and then all the specialised organs working with primary education. Relevant legislation, policies and strategies have been analysed. I have also looked further into the role of the NGOs, INGOs and UN Agencies in the implementation process. Due to the close connection between the lack of access to education and the existence of child labour I have chosen to describe and analyse this problematic in one independent chapter. One chapter provides a situation analysis of the situation of education in existence today in Nepal. The essay also outlines the basic problems that the system of education struggles with. From my point of view the situation today is that many countries in the world, under international pressure to ratify international conventions but without the means of enforcing them nationally, may get the impression that the most important thing is the ratification in itself, and not the process of legislation, enforcement and evaluation that should follow this ratification. Governments may ratify conventions for political reasons, whilst knowing that the provisions will be difficult to enforce in their countries. Poor countries are becoming increasingly eager to speedily ratify human rights conventions. The first twenty Governments to ratify the CRC were those of third world countries, whereas USA still has not signed. Over the last ten years Nepal has made some notable efforts to improve the situation for its children through the adoption of needed legislation such as the Children's act 1992, establishment of different governmental organs at all level of the society and the enactment of policies and programs. Although great progress over the last decade has been made, the formal education system in Nepal still suffers from poor quality of instructions, inadequate materials and poor school management, which undeniably contributes to the high drop-out and repetition rates, especially among girls living in rural areas. The obligation to ensure each and every child's right to basic education lies primarily within the Government of Nepal. Nevertheless, in Nepal primary education is still not made compulsory and free of charge. The Government tries to fulfil its obligations under article 28 of the CRC but my opinion is that it does not try hard enough. The Government and its Agencies do struggle with many domestic problems such as political instability, lack of resources, lack of adequate people and fundamental administrative problems. In addition, rural poverty, traditional social barriers and lack of awareness about children's rights are some major obstacles in the implementation process that the Government must set to work at. However, positive changes have appeared such as more schools have been constructed, more children do actually start primary school and more families send their girls to school. Unfortunately only a very small part of the population can take part of these changes, mostly still live in absolute poverty without any familiarity at all about children's rights.