Statement by Prof. Dr. Mohan P. Lohani, Delegate from Nepal, at the 2nd Annual Conference of the Education Forum for Asia held in Beijing, China, October 13-16, 2005.

Mr. Chairman,

Excellencies, Distinguished Participants,

Ladies and Gentlemen

         I am delighted to be back again in Beijing to attend the Second Annual Conference of the Education Forum for Asia co-organized by the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the China Scholarship Council. I take this opportunity to thank the host country of this Conference, the People's Republic of China, for its warm hospitality and for the excellent arrangements made for this Conference. Nepal and China are close neighbours bound by strong bonds of friendship dating back to ancient time. My visit this time assumes special significance as this year marks the 50th golden jubilee anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Nepal and the People's Republic of China.

         Regular interactions between the leaders of China and Nepal have significantly contributed to cementing warm and friendly relations between the two neighbours. Mention should be made of the exchange of views at the recent meeting between His Majesty King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev of Nepal and His Excellency Hu Jintao, President of China, on the sidelines of the Asia-Africa Summit in Indonesia in April this year.

         Nepal has supported the activities of Boao Forum for Asia since its very inception. HM King Gyanendra, by attending and addressing the fourth Annual Conference of the Forum again in April this year, has reaffirmed Nepal's commitment to the noble objectives of the Forum designed to bring peace and prosperity to Asia through regional integration.

         The Education Forum for Asia, since the meeting of Initiators in December 2003, and supported by current and former Asian leaders, ministers of education from this region as well as a number of education experts and programme implementers from across the globe, has achieved considerable success on important issues discussed, debated and finally approved at the last conference. Both Mr. Long Yong-tu, Secretary General, BFA and Mr. Yao Wang, Director General, BFA, deserve special thanks for their sincere and unremitting efforts in implementing the decisions of the Forum and facilitating steady progress towards the goal of Building Bridges for Asian Education.

         Last year, HE Kirti Nidhi Bista, one of the Initiators of the Forum, in his speech at the Granting Ceremony during the First Annual Conference of the Education Forum for Asia, had welcomed the proposal to establish the Asian Scholarship Fund, expressed gratitude to the different institutes and enterprises of China under the guidance of the Chinese Ministry of Education for their generous financial support to the Fund and had called on education authorities, institutions, colleges and universities as well as entrepreneurs committed to educational development among Asian countries to extend their full support for the Asian Scholarship Fund with a view to developing Asian education and economy through talent enhancement in the region.

         Needless to point out, Asia is a vast continent diverse in its history, culture, tradition and ethnicity and is endowed with enormous natural and human resources. Such resources need to be fully exploited and utilized for the wellbeing of the peoples of the region. In this context, the relevance of human resource development through educational training and research to economic growth, poverty alleviation and social transformation needs no over emphasis. Asia, the most populous continent in the world, despite its remarkable progress on several fronts in recent years, still lags behind Europe and North America in developing human resources, including highly skilled manpower for rapid economic growth. BFA, since its inception, has rightly recognized the importance and necessity of educational development in the region with special focus on training and research best suited to the needs and aspirations of peoples of the region in the new century.

         For a number of Asian developing countries which gained independence in the later half of the 20th century it was a challenging task to reject outright the existing models and practices of education inherited as legacies of the colonial past. Nevertheless, the newly independent countries made sincere efforts to establish national education systems which achieved success not only in ensuring access to basic education but also in expanding the network of institutions of higher learning. Almost all Asian developing countries have, over the years, sought to adapt themselves to new trends in the education sector. They have positively responded to the emphasis laid by the UN agencies such as UNESCO on the expansion of facilities for primary education in pursuance of the objective of Universal Compulsory Primary Education. As you may be aware, the 2000 Dakar Declaration underlines the urgency and relevance of Primary Education for All with Early Childhood Development as an inalienable part of Universal Primary Education.

         The higher education system in the countries of this region has also witnessed a paradigm shift, in recent years, from the elitist liberal higher education to need-oriented technology-based higher education system designed to address the development needs of the countries concerned. The change is visible in the curriculum structure, academic design, management mechanism, financing pattern and stakeholder participation. It is difficult for any Asian country, howsoever poor and backward, to avoid the impact of globalization on education, particularly at the tertiary level. Teaching and learning is almost inconceivable without the use of most sophisticated technology. How to raise the level of quality and relevance of higher education has become a matter of concern to all policy makers in the region.

         Increasing demand for higher education has, indeed, become a global phenomenon. The rate of expansion is, however, disproportionate to the rate of economic growth in many developing countries. Such countries are reluctant to accept cost sharing, which has posed a serious problem for public financing. Many Asian governments are also unable to allocate substantial sums of money for higher education due to financial constraints and have been encouraging even public institutions of higher learning to generate their incomes from non-government sources like industry and commerce. Besides, priority to basic or primary education has persuaded many developing countries to reduce their support for higher education. As a result, universities and other tertiary institutions have come increasingly under pressure to cater to the needs of a wide variety of students through various alternative modes such as open learning and technology intensive pedagogy.

         The demands of the labour market are changing fast and so are patterns of employment. Traditional sources of employment such as government and small industries are also shrinking. Courses which once met national needs are now irrelevant. New courses are required. In many developing countries, students need to be taught how to create opportunities for self-employment. As stated earlier, the academic community must be prepared to adjust itself to new trends and dramatic developments in the education sector. There is demand for effective management which presupposes acquisition of new management skills. Those used to traditional methods of teaching and learning do not possess such skills. It goes without saying that in a fiercely competitive society like ours, educational managers need to learn and grasp commercial management techniques.

         Any effort towards improving the education sector in a country like Nepal cannot lose sight of the existing political, economic, socio-cultural and administrative set-up of the country. Cognizant of this reality, His Majesty's Government of Nepal has prepared a legal and institutional framework which would encourage all concerned stakeholders to interact for the development of participatory educational policies and programmes. In this context, local bodies will be assigned a more decisive role in educational planning and implementation to encourage people's participation at the grass-roots level. To put it more explicitly, a major strategy adopted by this country in its 10th plan to fulfill the education objective is the decentralization of school governance in line with the Local Self-Government Act (LSGA) and handing over of the school management responsibility to the School Management Committee (SMC). Both the LSGA and the Education Act (Seventh Amendment) focus on the need for involving the community in educational planning and development with emphasis on ownership, accountability, local control over effective utilization of resources, and local resource mobilization.

         The promotion of vocational courses and private sector involvement in extending basic and middle level technical education also forms the 10th plan strategy. In higher education, cost recovery and sharing and decentralization are the guiding principles.

         Serious thought is also being given to the creation of a Commission for Higher Education authorized to plan, manage and coordinate the higher education system of the country. This would mark a significant departure from educational management based on the government bureaucracy. The government might also encourage the establishment of new universities provided no financial commitment is involved. In other words, such universities would be encouraged to operate on self-financing basis. Likewise, the government might also encourage the establishment of new universities in collaboration with external organizations and allow them to operate on commercial basis. In view of new challenges being faced by the nation in the context of a new global order of social and economic transformation and modernization, education development requires innovative approaches and strategies.

         In conclusion, I am pleased to note that the Annual Conference this year is going to focus deliberations on important topics such as Education Development Strategies for Asian Countries in the New Century, Resource Sharing in Distance Education- Establishing a New Path for Cooperation in Asia, Cross-Cultural Management, Enterprise and Education, Studying Overseas and Returning Entrepreneurs and Strategic Development of Small and Medium sized Higher Education Institution. I am confident that the sharing of views and experiences among leaders from Asia and the world, experts in education, university administrators, the business community and other relevant international institutions will brighten the prospects of Asian education development in the years to come.