What makes one call himself/ herself educated? Is it not gaining knowledge in a particular field to specialize in that certain field and excel?

The definition of education is commonly ‘the wealth of knowledge acquired by an individual after studying particular subject matters or experiencing life lessons that provide an understanding of something’. Career Disha Nepal believes that there is something missing in the definition, INDIVIDUALITY.

According to CDN, the definition is completely subjective and should be differentiated from schooling or studying. Meaning, the same form of ‘education’ does not and will not fit-for-all. Thus leading us to conclude that the generic standardized testing system might not be as reliable as people might have thought them to be due to obvious reasons such as geographical, cultural and learning pattern. Nepal, though does not have the best education opportunities still boasts couple of specific courses targeted to certain individuals. But it should be known that majority of students prefer academic stream, SLC, +2 etc. over skill based courses. However, there huge margins of young students failing to complete the secondary level of education regardless the push from societies and governmental schools.

The misconception begins at a much basic level, when a child is put in a competitive environment where the child’s first thing is to learn alphabets… this trend continues till the end of high school where learning academics is never ending. This has some negative aspects such as creativity and imaginative loss, the focus on popular education etc which should not be ignored completely.

In the current Nepali society, teaching is taken as lower esteemed occupation. So much so that we have a stereotypical saying “अरु केहि जागिर नपाए पढाएर खाऊला” (if you cannot find other higher esteemed job, then teach to survive). This way of educating students: regressive  education trends, in educational sectors require a drastic transformation, starting from the educating society.

A massive number of students are stuck after their high school wondering about their future and even more right after their bachelors. This trend of looking back for inspiration, when it might have been too late has not been ratified yet, and we ought to have a deeper look at education system in Nepal.

Knowingly or unknowingly, maximum number of students tend to follow a formal academic education, ignore other educational options like informal education, which in hand are the more important for personal growth. A study by the International labor Organization (ILO) on Nepali youth between 15-29 reveals youth unemployment rate among university graduates is at 26.1 per cent, which is three times higher than those with ‘no education at all’. The research shows that most of the educated youth remain unemployed to that of the uneducated ones. One of the solutions can be, introducing various technical or vocational training for professional development at the school level can be more useful to their future career. Even before students are made to select particular subjects, their interest should be discovered and they should act accordingly.

Our education system doesn’t promote personal initiatives, research and creativity. The students are being judge through standard examination and when one fails in those exams s/he are considered incapable and weak comparatively. Other skills or qualities are blatantly ignored.   There is utmost urgency for a revolutionary change in this sector in order to flourish possible opportunity and develop personally/professionally.

In conclusion, we need to conduct more research to understand what the youth need — considering the geographical, economical and the physical aspects of Nepal.