Influence of Regulatory Changes on Technical Schools and Nursing Education in Nepal
Over the past two years, Nepal has experienced the shutdown of 228 technical schools because of legal issues tied to student admissions. These schools, previously overseen by the Council of Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT), had to close down because of new rules set by the Medical Education Commission. This sudden closure has raised worries among schools and those involved in education due to the lack of government help and the financial challenges linked to the sudden rule changes.
Effects on Nursing Education
The National Medical Education Act, 2075, said that nursing programs at the graduate level need to be connected with a hospital having at least 100 beds within two years. Before this rule, nursing colleges could work with other hospitals for teaching. Now, the colleges are having a hard time meeting this requirement because making a 100-bed hospital in that short time isn’t possible. The Chairman of Forum for Health and Technical Science, Netralal Chatout, said that if the government took two years to make the rules, expecting colleges to build a big hospital at the same time doesn’t make sense.
Financial and Academic Consequences
The shutting down of these schools has sadly taken away chances for many students to learn. In the time span of three years, 930 students before getting their diplomas, 290 with diplomas, and 116 in graduate programs couldn’t study with scholarships anymore. The money lost from unused scholarships is a huge 725,448,000 rupees every year. Plus, more than seven thousand teachers and staff are now without jobs because of these closures.
Difficulties Encountered by Educational institutes
The people in charge of these closed schools are not happy because the government didn’t help them switch to the new rules more easily. Even though they spent a lot of money, sometimes billions of rupees, they say the Commission’s plans were not fair and put their money in danger. The schools had to close because of the National Medical Education Act, 2075, which created the Medical Education Commission.
Viewpoint of the Government
Krishna Prasad Kapri, who works for the Medical Education Commission, explained that he understands the concerns of private schools, but he can’t do much because the rules were made by the Parliament. He knows that business people usually want things that help them, but he emphasized that these changes are official laws.
Committee for Challenges and Requests
To deal with these difficulties, a group from the forum that represents technical schools has created a committee to fight for their needs. Their main goal is to push the government to listen to them. This committee has listed a few important things they want: they want 73 nursing
colleges to be able to take in students again since the changes stopped them, they want the Medical Education Act to change, especially the part about needing a 100-bed hospital for nursing programs, and they also want a situation where they can practice in a 100-bed hospital.
The shutting down of 228 technical schools in Nepal over two years has started a discussion about how changing rules affect education. The disagreement between money already spent, what’s doable, and new needs shows that schools have a lot of hard problems. Both schools and the government want to find a solution that keeps education good and also makes sure schools can stay open without money troubles.