The British Council Nepal organised the 6th Education Symposium on 24 February with the theme of ‘Advancing inclusivity and quality in teaching, learning, and assessment systems in Nepal’.
The education symposium this year focused on four areas of inclusive and quality school education in Nepal, which is aligned with the priorities of Nepal’s School Education Sector Plan, Nepal’s Education Policy 2019, and the needs of a 21st-century school education system.
The focus areas of this year’s symposium are i) Teachers’ Professional Development ii) Inclusive education iii) Creative education through arts iv) Assessment.
The event brought together key government stakeholders from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and its line agencies, as well as provincial and local government officials, development partners, policymakers, planners, administrators, educators, researchers, and representatives from civil service organisations and the private sector. The platform provided an opportunity for all the stakeholders for informed and constructive discussion on issues, opportunities and challenges in the four thematic areas. It also provided a platform for researchers and practitioners to share evidence and experience related to the four focus areas.
Ram Prasad Subedi, Secretary, Ministry of Education Science and Technology said: ‘‘The four key themes of this symposium are well reflected in the new School Education Sector Plan (SESP) the Ministry is currently developing. I would like to thank the British Council and the development partners for the successful implementation of the School Sector Development Plan and move to SESP but still, there is a lot to be done. We hope to incorporate practical ways to successfully implement SESP for which we need to improve the use of technology, inclusive infrastructure and communities where children feel welcomed and highly skilled teachers to translate the plans into results. I am taking this symposium as the opportunity to acknowledge success and take stock of where we stand and aim for achieving better learning outcomes in the future.’’
Shahida MacDougall, Country Director Nepal said: ‘‘For over 64 years in Nepal, we have engaged with millions of people and supported numerous institutions in Nepal in education, language, skills, arts and youth development. Our annual education symposium is one of the ways in which the British Council supports the Government of Nepal’s education sector reforms. The symposium brought together educators and policymakers to discuss opportunities and challenges around policies and their implementation.’’
During the programme, we also launched a research report on the status of teacher education and development in Nepal. The report focuses on continuing professional development to contextualise what happens at the in-service level and analysis of initial teacher preparation. The report can be downloaded from this link: https://bit.ly/3YViALW