Preparing to Appoint Principals Through Open Competition in Public Schools Across the Country

In order to improve the quality of teaching and learning in public schools, the government has prepared to select the headmaster through open competition through the local level.

On the recommendation of the School Management Committee, the Education Development and Coordination Unit plans to change the practice of selecting the principal and encourage the local level to adopt open competition.

Bhaktapur’s Surya Vinayak municipality has already implemented the selection of principals through open competition in 30 public schools within its area. In order to improve the deteriorating educational quality, the Ministry of Education has tried to implement this method throughout the country after the municipality selected the headmaster through a competition based on merit and ability.

In the education regulations, there is a provision to select the principal by the education development and coordination unit on the recommendation of the school management committee. The government has revised it and made a separate procedure to select the principal through open competition through the local level.

The government is preparing to make a procedure and implement it based on qualifications, experience, training, school development proposals, etc. for the principal.

There are 28,000 community schools across the country. At the basic level, there is a legal provision that a teacher who has at least a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s degree in education for secondary level or equivalent can be a principal. Principals say that although the system of selecting principals based on competition through the local level is good, a new system should be implemented so that those who are qualified and have contributed a lot are not displaced.

The public representative says that the local level should select the principal to improve the teaching and learning quality of the community schools and to improve the managerial aspect.

If the principal is competent and honest, there is no doubt that the educational condition of the school will improve. It is important to end the trend of appointing teachers and making them principals based on personal closeness and party beliefs. For this, the governments of those levels need to make policy decisions and move forward.