CTEVT lacks clear affiliation policy

Senior official of Council for the Technical Education and Vocational Training was manhandled on Tuesday for declining the proposal of a new technical institute in Morang.

Forty-eight applications seeking the status of certificate and diploma-level nursing and health assistant college dated back to 2005 are waiting to get affiliation, while 420 qualified proposals for the affiliations of Technical SLC programme of last year are gathering dust in the CTEVT office.

Taking exception to the backlog of the applications, CTEVT employee’s trade unions padlocked the office of the vice-chairman, administration for a couple of weeks last month.

The policy deficiency in awarding technical education and vocational training institutions, and ad hoc policy and discrepancies in the implementation draws flak and protests time to time.

CTEVT provides affiliation to institutions in 23 various streams without coherent policy. A map of nursing and health assistant colleges reflects a major driving force of disproportionate population distribution in the country, says educationist Prof Tirtha Khaniya.

Out of the total 88 nursing colleges across the country, 49 are in Tarai districts and 25 in the Kathmandu Valley.

No different is the picture of health assistant producing institutes. There is a need for course correction in establishing the colleges through a comprehensive policy.

It’s urgent to make access of the technical education to the hills by streamlining the distribution, added Khaniya.

However, it is reported sometimes the Technical Education and Vocational Policy drafts are prepared in the Ministry of Education without adequate discussions. Without deciding on earlier proposals, CTEVT is currently collecting proposals, raising the doubts on the interests of the officials. So far, 500 institutes have sought affiliation.