Three local levels of Kathmandu yet to implement local curriculum

Three of the 11 local levels of Kathmandu district have not implemented the local curriculum yet.

The constitution has given the responsibility to the local level to implement the local curriculum as a subject at the basic level.

Though the local levels have full authority to finalise the matters like the language, content to be included and from when to start teaching-learning activities of the local curriculum, Nagarjun, Tokha and Kirtipur municipalities have not been able to implement it yet.

The two municipalities, Nagarjun and Tokha, have said that preparation has been made to implement the local curriculum from this academic session while Kirtipur municipality said it would start teaching-learning in the local curriculum once the coronavirus pandemic subsides.

The eight local levels have been teaching the local curriculum. Most of the local levels implementing the local curriculum have chosen the Nepali language for teaching and learning purposes.

The Kathmandu Metropolis and the Kirtipur Municipality have selected the Nepal Bhasa as the local language to be taught at schools. The Gokarneshwor Municipality is the first local body in Kathmandu to have prepared the local curriculum and implement it in the form of school textbooks for the past three years. Other local levels implementing the constitutional provision are the Chandragiri, Shankharapur, Dakshinkali, Kageshwori Manohara, and Budhanilkantha municipalities.

Article 32 of the Constitution which is about the Right to Language and Culture has guaranteed each person and community the right to use their mother language, to participate in the cultural life of its community and to preserve and promote its language, script, culture, cultural civilization and heritage, defining it as the fundamental rights of the people.

As per this Constitutional right, provision has been made by the local levels to themselves teach the local curriculum as one paper of 100 full marks in the community and institutional schools under them.

KMC has started teaching the local curriculum in the Nepal Bhasa (Newari language) since the last academic session. The rest of the local governments in Kathmandu have been managing the teaching local curriculum from the existing teachers while KMC has hired and managed teachers on its own resources for this purpose.