Nepalko Bhavi Sambidhanma Kasta Kuraharu Bhaye Hunthyo?

What do you think the new constitution of Nepal should offer us?

I guess the constitution should provide an EQUAL OPPORTUNITY to ALL its citizens irrespective of their caste or race, religion, gender, age, origin, background and ability (et al). This literally means that you will be treated equally by the state whether you are a Muslim/Christian or Hindu/Buddhist, straight, transgender or gay, Shudra/Vaishya or Chhetri/Brahmin, 19 or 90 year-old, able or disabled, Madhesi/Pahade or Bhote, Oriental or Aryan, PhD holder, an illiterate or in-between!

It is fairly easy to say this but in order to offer such a fair opportunity to all we need a very transparent system in place in every walk of life. My philosophy is very simple: most good things including the Internet have now been invented by the rest of the world, we simply need to import good ones into our constitution and implement them! Most of them are tried and tested already by the world and we can only pick up those that are the BEST!

I have got a proposal: Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese live abroad now, some commanding fairly good positions where they have seen something work very well in their neighbourhood. I suggest they all suggest "best practices" from their walk of life to be considered in the new constitution of Nepal so that we will be heading towards having one of the best constitutions in the world!

I have got areas that I would like to mention in this site. If you have any reasons why they should or should not be included please list your reasons. Only constraint is that you should list commonsensical, logical (mathematically or scientifically), proven (those implemented successfully somewhere in the world) or tested (piloted successfully in some areas) issues with valid argument either for or against your points.


If you wish to read constitutions of other countries in the world, please follow these links (I think everyone involved in the making of the constitution of Nepal should visit these sites too):

http://confinder.richmond.edu/alpha.php

http://www.constitution.org/cons/natlcons.htm

http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/const.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_constitutions_by_age

I suggest you read points raised here and make comments by clicking on "comment" at the end of each point, either anonymously or by logging in with your genuine address.

Thursday 22 May 2008

Education - 100% Free Schooling up to 16 years of Age Through Education Vouchers

England has 100% free and compulsory education to all up to the age of 16. It is all free including text books. Nepal has similar structure but perhaps pupils have to buy their own books. Unfortunately the gap between government schools and private schools in Nepal is huge, unlike in Britain.

In order to make a free education a quality education in par with the private education, the government can issue school-age children some education vouchers to the value it costs to teach them in a government school so that parents can use the voucher to educate their children in a private school and, if necessary, top up with some money if the voucher alone does not cover the private school fee. This will make government schools compete against private schools and perform comparatively if they wish to survive or else they will have to close down due to lack of pupils. Currently the government is spending millions of rupees in free education but such education is not comparable to the private education which sometimes costs the same from the government's perspective.

Let us discuss if someone has better ideas than education vouchers or if someone wishes to discuss pros and cons of voucher system.

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