The Book:
High rates of drop-out and failure associated with the SLC-exam are prominent features of the Nepali school system. Thus, the phenomenon of "school failure" is the starting point of the book, whose German title literally translates "Between Educational Gain and Experience Loss - School Education in a Hill District of Nepal." Not by chance, the title subtly indicates a marked ambivalence. Ambivalence, according to the author, applies to many aspects of the education sector in Nepal. Ambivalence is felt by Nepali and foreign educationists, when they consider the present status of education. It is felt by teachers who daily experience the dilemmas and limitations of their professional efforts. It is also felt by students and their parents in regard to their aspirations and hopes for educational gains.
"Education" is considered the magic formula in Nepal, as it is in many developing countries today. Like no other single means, education promises a way out of poverty to individuals as well as nations. However, are these expectations being met, and are such hopes being fulfilled? Are related sacrifices justified? Do the existing educational frameworks meet their supposed ends?
The book is organized into three parts. In part one, a general account of the establishment and growth of the public school system in Nepal is presented. A historic overview is given. Administrative structures, and more recent developments in the education sector, as well as related problem areas are outlined.
In part two, case studies of three village schools in the hill district of Okhaldhunga are presented, which bring the educational issues closer home to school reality at the family level. Detailed descriptions of the complex fabric of competing interests of school administrators, teachers, students, and parents are offered, which present us with extraordinary inside view of the present state of education in rural Nepal. The book illustrates the financial and organisational dilemmas of attempting to maintain a minimum standard of quality in education while at the same time facing the pressure of ever increasing numbers of students. Interlinking complexities of local power structures, caste relations, and gender issues are described in detail, using first hand interview material from key players in the local education network.
The third part of the book portraits individual school leavers who failed in the SLC and shares their personal experience. Herein, matters of school education are connected with the realities of life experienced by many young people in the hill districts. They are faced with the uncertainties of joblessness and poverty. They have to deal with broader questions related to being a part of a rapidly transforming society. Traditional values and practices no longer support their hopes and aspirations, but rather are perceived as standing in the way of modernisation. Rural schools - as illustrated in the case-studies - are arenas and focal points of this conflict.
Two very challenging questions are raised by this book. What needs to be done within the Nepali school system to better prepare future generations for the changes that country will most certainly continue to experience? And, who will lead the way in ensuring such school reform does indeed take place?

The Author:
Thomas Doehne is an educationist by background and came to Nepal with his family in January 1986. He and his wife worked within the Rural Development Department of the United Mission to Nepal. The family spent nearly six years in Okhaldhunga District, East-Nepal, and later moved to Kathmandu. While living in Okhaldunga, Thomas was involved in setting up a Non-Formal Education Programme which brought him in close contact with village schools and teachers within a large project area. Experiencing first hand the day to day struggles of operating schools and "delivering" education, often under very difficult circumstances, he focused his attention and research interest upon matters of school education. After his return to Germany, he completed his PHD in education at the Goethe University in Frankfurt.

Review

Dilemmas of Rural Education
By Karl-Heinz Kraemer


Rural secondary school education in the Eastern Nepali district of Okhaldhunga is the focus of a book recently published in Germany by Thomas Doehne titled „Zwischen Bildungsgewinn und Erfahrungsverlust: Schulerziehung in einem Bergdistrikt Nepals.“ After a short introduction into the adapted research method the author describes the historical development and structure of the public school system in Nepal. The description of physical and social facts of the Okhaldhunga area is followed by detailed research on the three high schools of Okhaldhunga Bazar, Rampur and Umbu. The author presents a new perspective when linking education problems with aspects of ethnicity.
The population structure of Okhaldhunga district can be seen as representative for rural Nepal. The constitution introduced in November 1990 admits to multiethnicity as an essential aspect of the Nepali state. Government, administration and political parties are urged to implement the equality of all citizens irrespective of religion, race, gender, caste, tribe or ideology as guaranteed by article 11 of the constitution. But numerous statistics and anthropological studies have proved that the given facts in many respects still differ from constitutional ideals.
But ethnic and other social organizations have contributed to a greater awareness of people belonging to ethnic groups or the low Hindu castes (dalits). This awareness seems to be growing with the level of education. But education has a double function in modern Nepal. It is not only the agent of awareness but is also used by the traditional state elites to preserve their own political, social and economic privileges.
Doehne's area study illustrates this contradiction. Views and experiences of protagonists and those concerned contribute to qualitative findings and statements about education in rural Nepal. It proves that the dominance of the traditional state elite has left behind its traces in the foundation history of all the three schools, and that it has been present in the daily routine of the schools till today. It turns out that special population groups – the Tibeto-Mongolian ethnic groups and, even more, the occupational Hindu castes thought to be untouchables – are disadvantaged by the current Nepali school system in respect to participation and chances of success (p.279).
The socio-cultural background of the students is also decisive for the reasonable integration of the knowledge transferred by the school into the everyday conditions of life. Besides, Doehne proves the existence of socio-economic and gender-specific inequalities. The former aspect is especially distinct towards occupational castes. It is further intensified by the social stigmatization and exclusion of these castes. Economic plight forces the search for alternatives; often, the student's world collapses in the case of failure at school. The strong discrimination against girls, which is found in the whole Nepali society, finds its reflection in the field of public education. It is especially present among caste Hindus where the status of women is ideologically based on religious conceptions. Thomas Doehne explains the relatively higher school enrolment of girls from the so-called upper Hindu castes as stemming less from the lifting of gender specific conceptions but more from the calculation of the improvement of marriage chances and the status elevation of the future husband (p.281). The gender specific inequality is further proved by the fact that parents rarely give their daughters a chance to repeat a failed SLC exam.
Caste status and chances for success at school seem to be closely related; social norms and values at school are totally designed for the children from upper Hindu castes. The teachers, themselves mainly from high Hindu castes, interpret this phenomenon in an ethno-centric way in terms of the higher intelligence of Bahun and Chhetri children. This education differential is further intensified by the exclusive use of Nepali, the mother tongue of the Hindu castes, as the general medium of education. Doehne found this differential along the lines of gender and caste/ethnicity at all the three schools. But there were also differences between these schools based upon the respective socio-cultural milieu.
The situation of rural schools differs from that of urban schools in many respects. Foremostly, the involvement of the students in the working processes of their families leads to very irregular visit of school. Another important aspect for successful school attendance is the distance of the school from the student's house.
A very special problem lies in the discrepancies between the school curricula and the practical needs in the rural area. Knowledge derived from cultural tradition and local experiences alone is no longer sufficient for survival in the villages, where rapid processes of change wash away the local and historical social structures.
Doehne sees rural education as being in a dilemma. It should be oriented to the future to prepare for processes of change. But the latter happens so rapidly that all those involved cannot cope. School education is only aimed at the passing of the SLC exam. It is "oriented in a linear thinking, the characteristic of which is individual contest, competition and choice, education for punctuality, and the acquisition of knowledge presented in a register like way. This orientation requires time, energy, money and other resources, but it returns little back to the local economy and the village community" (pp.299-300). Since the youth cannot apply in the village what they have learnt at school, they have no other chance but to look for a job outside the village.
Doehne's research is impressive for its detailed analysis of the situation at the three schools in Okhaldhunga district. His many years of co-operation in a project and later repeated returns allow a comparative analysis over a longer period. The author's good knowledge of Nepali was a precondition for innumerable interviews. I found it especially laudable that Doehne has integrated numerous Nepali terms into the text instead of only using German or English translations. To sum up, Thomas Doehne managed to illustrate the interrelations between education system, caste/ethnicity and future perspectives in Nepal. Besides, he provides valuable insights into fundamental problems of the rural Nepali education system.

Thomas Döhne
Zwischen Bildungsgewinn und Erfahrungsverlust: Schulerziehung in einem Bergdistrikt Nepals.
Frankfurt: Brandes & Apsel, 2000
ISBN 3-86099-295-3.

(Karl-Heinz Kraemer is affiliated with the Department of Political Science,
South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany)