When my daughter was four I decided to put her in a school. Galaxy Public School had just been established near my place in the Gyaneswar area so I enrolled her there in the nursery class. But even as I was putting her in Galaxy, my mind was already thinking of ways to get her admitted into the more renowned St. Mary's High School in Jawalakhel. Two years later, we did just that. I remember waiting on the school's grounds as the entrance exams were being conducted in a hall at St. Mary's. My daughter was the first to come out and I asked her as to how she had done. "It was easy Papa," she said. "Only how do you spell ‘musa' (mouse in Nepali)?" When I told her, her response was, "I think I got it wrong."
The question on my mind was how the students would be selected since I couldn't fathom what difference in intelligence there would be among six-year-old children sitting for an entrance exam in which the questions could not be but simple. The school authorities no doubt had a huge task on their hands as typically, more than 2000 apply every year for 200 seats in this premier school. Anyway, the long and the short of it was that my daughter gained the coveted admission to the prestigious school and 11 years later passed out from Class 12. The fact that she is a St. Mary's alumni will undoubtedly be one of her greatest assets in life just as my being a St. Joseph's (Darjeeling) alumni is a big asset for me. I confess that when I went for my first job interview, this fact alone gave me quite an unfair advantage over the other candidates. A good basic school background is certainly as important as is a good college degree.
And, when talking about basic education in Nepal, is it possible not to mention Darjeeling schools where many of the Nepal elite sent their children for early studies till recently, and many still continue to do so? The fact that many members of the royal families of Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal (including the late King Birendra, the ex King Gyanendra, and the late Prince Dhirendra), as also scions of the once princely Indian states studied in St. Josephs and other similar schools in the Darjeeling region, lent an aura of glamour to those who were educated there. As a matter of interest it should also be mentioned that the late Queen Aishwarya did her schooling from St. Helen's of Kurseong. There are numerous well known names in Nepali industry and business who also were educated in Darjeeling schools. In addition, many teachers from that region have been involved in the establishment of reputed schools here. One example is Brihaspati Vidyasadan established in 1985 by the late Mr. Maurice Banerjee who was not only the Principal of St. Joseph's (Darjeeling) at one time, but also one of the better teachers to be found anywhere. Another example is Shuvatara School, whose founder Principal, Ms. Rani Raj Gurung Kakshyapati, is also a Darjeeling alumnus.
In recent years, however, the tendency is more towards Nepalese students going out of the country for higher studies rather than for early education. The reason is obvious - now there are plenty of good schools within the country itself (the late Princes Dipendra and Nirajan studied in Budhanilkantha School and the late Princess Shruti, in St. Mary's). The rapid progress in the educational sector is something that has to be appreciated, and now there are plenty of reputed schools that can claim to be as good as many Darjeeling schools and the standard setters in Nepal itself, that is, St. Xavier's and St. Mary's. During the 1950's, there were only 310 primary and middle schools, 11 high schools, two colleges, and one technical school in the country. The number of students was about 10,000.
After the overthrow of the Rana regime in 1951, efforts were made to increase literacy rates. Primary education was made free and compulsory in 1975. By 1987, the country had 2,532,021 students enrolled in 17,186 schools with about 75,869 teachers. The 2001 census saw 5,500,000 students enrolled in 26,000 schools, 415 colleges, five universities and two academies of higher studies. The number of teachers was well over 150,000. Indeed, the educational sector has made terrific strides and nowadays one will find good schools and colleges throughout the country. The augmentation has been mostly due to the expansion of private schools since 1990. Yet, quantity alone does not translate into quality and private schools have often been criticized for becoming more of money making machines rather than wholesome educational institutions. While the criticism is justified to some extent, it must also be admitted that there has also been tremendous enhancement of quality in many of these institutions. Perhaps quality does come with a price.
Yet, when one comes to think of it, there have been some schools which have played a pioneering role in uplifting the educational standards here without having to face similar criticism. Prominent among these is St. Xavier's School, Godavari, which started its classes on July 1, 1951 under the leadership of Fr. Marshall Moran, an American-born priest regarded as the pioneer of modern education in Nepal. On September 9, 1954, the primary section was shifted to Jawalakhel. In due time, St. Xavier's Jawalakhel became a full-fledged high school and St. Xavier's Godavari became a primary boarding school. In 1996, it was decided to make St. Xavier's Godavari into a co-educational high school meant primarily for day scholars from neighbouring villages and in 2001, St. Xavier's Jawalakhel too became co-educational.
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