Free and Compulsory Education Policy in Nepal: A Critical Policy Analysis of Implementation, Effectiveness, Equity and Sustainability

Education is a basic right of every child and an important tool for human capital development, social inclusion, poverty alleviation and sustainable development. The Government of Nepal has taken considerable efforts to institutionalize free and compulsory education through constitutional provisions, legal provisions and policy instruments. The paper critically summarizes the assessment of the Nepal Free and Compulsory Education Policy through the lenses of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) assessment framework that involves relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability as analytical dimensions with cross-cutting theme of equity. The analysis indicates that the policy has robust normative and legal aspects and has led to increased access to education; however, there are important gaps in implementation of the policy in terms of retention, completion, quality and learning outcomes. The key policy challenge is the mismatch between legal rights to education and actually attending to gain the benefits of learning, especially for the disadvantaged who are subject to these indirect costs, distance and lack of institutional capacity. The article concludes that there is a need for strategic shift in the education policy in Nepal from access-oriented implementation to equity oriented, quality oriented and outcome-oriented approaches. The suggested equity financing mechanisms are: building local government capacity; improving teachers' skills; lowering indirect educational expenses; incorporating social protection policies; establishing monitoring and evaluation systems; and strengthening intergovernmental coordination.