The political health of the country is not well. As in the past, Nepal’s largest revolutionary Maoist party fell apart. The country’s two major political parties have announced a series of protest programs. Political forces have intensified their efforts, but nothing moves beyond the reigning status quo. Despite a politically unstable situation and even breakup of his party, prime minister Baburam Bhattarai left for Rio to take part in the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development 2012 (Rio+20) Conference. Prime minister Bhattarai is scheduled to meet Indian prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh during his stay in Rio. All this is happening at a time when Nepal’s politics is heading towards a more unstable course.
Following the publication of the SLC results, the debate over the quality and the commercialization of education has come to the forefront. Nepal’s education system has seen changes in the last few decades with the increasing number of schools. However, the quality of education is yet to improve. The private investment has made a lot of transformation in education system but it has also brought so many unhealthy practices. In this context, we decided to cover the higher secondary education system as this week’s cover story. Our cover story analyzes various elements of the education sector. Can Nepal afford commercialization of education? This remains to be seen.