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theore� cal structures and complex econometric model of development
that o� en lead to inappropriate or simply incorrect policies. As a result,
desirable ins� tu� onal and structural reforms in the developing countries are
neglected or given only cursory a� en� on.
Looking at the result of the development process of foreign aid, Nepal’s
posi� on is nearer to the Marxists’ theore� cal assump� on.
Suppor� ng public school: resul� ng expansion of private school
Government is inves� ng both the internal revenue as well as foreign aid
for be� er access to quality educa� on from the public schools. The salary and
benefi t of public schools are much be� er than the majority of private schools.
Most of the public schools teachers are academically qualifi ed, experienced
and trained as well. If one takes the SLC result as the benchmark juxtaposed,
the quality of private schools is much impressive. The ci� zens are compelled
to send their children to the public school, just because they cannot aff ord the
private school’s expenses . Otherwise, there would be only a few students now
in public school. Despite huge amount of government investment including
foreign aid, the number of public school is shrinking while the number of
private school is expanding with leaps and bounds. Could we think it as an
"unintended eff ect" of this foreign aid against public school system? The
answer to this ques� on should be sought out at some point.
Investment in educa� on: Making reserve army
Now government is inves� ng almost one fi � h of its budget in educa� on
sector. If it is divided equally to the popula� on, each family gets more than
Rs. 8000 per annum. This does not account for the money spent by its ci� zen
in private school and other educa� onal investment made by other donor
agencies outside budgetary system. But the return of educa� on investment
is not only unproduc� ve but also harmful in many ways.
First, there is a culture that once the children come out of formal school
educa� on, even just comple� ng primary level, they are not supposed to
work in the fi eld and seek the white color job. But the countries’ situa� on is
just opposite. New jobs have been the ma� er of dream in the country, even
the opened industries are being closed. Hence, Nepal’s present educa� on
system is just producing lazy products who neither get back to farm work
nor get the white color job.
Second, the educa� onal sta� s� cs show that less than 10 percent of
popula� on enrolled in grade one completes the high school educa� on. As
aforemen� oned, these dropped out children neither go back to tradi� onal
occupa� on nor get new job. But at the same � me, due to the development
of communica� on and other socio poli� cal development of the country,
these groups of popula� on are fully aware of their rights. Mean� me, several
poli� cal par� es rope in these unemployed youth to fulfi ll their ulterior
mo� vies, as this group can be easily swayed by sugary promises. Hence,
government investment in educa� on is producing a bunch of thick heads
Changing paradigms of aid eff ec� veness in Nepal 135