Nepal

Nepal is a parliamentary democracy, with the head of the government being the Prime Minister and the nominal chief of state being the King. The legislative branch of the government consists of a bicameral Parliament. The lower branch of the Parliament is the House of Representatives that has 205 seats with members elected by popular vote to serve 5-year terms. The upper branch of the Parliament is the National Council that has 60 seats of which 35 are appointed by the House of Representatives, 10 by the King, and 15 are elected by an electoral college with a 6-year term with one-third being elected every 2 years. The Supreme Court heads the judicial branch of the Government, with the chief justice being appointed by the monarch upon the recommendation of the Constitutional Council.

Nepal is a signatory to the policy of Education for All (in 1990 at Jomtien, Thailand) and the Convention of the Rights of the Child (in 1991 at New Delhi, India) and is committed to free and universal education. Since 1951, the government has constituted education commissions at periodic intervals to develop basic policy guidelines. Subsequently, the cabinet decisions and parliament acts have included these policy guidelines into five-year national plans. The Eighth Five-Year Plan concluded in June 1997. In the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1997-2002), since the country continued to struggle with poverty, the primary national development objectives are focused on poverty alleviation and the chosen strategy for accomplishing these objectives is through education. The Ninth Five-Year Plan describes educational priorities that include improving school facilities, enhancing teacher training, and expanding secondary, vocational, and technical institutions. The Ninth Five-Year Plan also emphasizes enhancement of the quality of general education, female participation in education, and access to education for disabled and socially disadvantaged communities. The Ninth Five-Year Plan envisages a growth of the net primary school enrollment to 90 percent by the end of its period in 2002 and 100 percent by the end of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan in 2017.