The Government of Nepal has issued the 10th amendment to the Education Regulation, a revision that stakeholders in the education sector had been anxiously awaiting for some time. The amendment was formally endorsed by the Council of Ministers last week, and it has now been published in the Nepal Gazette today, giving it official legal standing.
The Education Regulation, 2059 (2002) has served as the principal regulatory framework governing school education in Nepal for over two decades, laying out detailed provisions on school registration, teacher appointment and transfer, headteacher qualifications, the National Examinations Board's functions, and the broader administration of community and institutional schools. Over the years, it has been amended multiple times to keep pace with changes introduced through the Education Act. Notably, the Eighth Amendment to the regulation, introduced in 2071 BS (2014), came alongside the Eighth Amendment to the Education Act in 2073 BS (2016), which redefined school education to cover grades 1 through 12 and shifted the national school-leaving examination from grade 10 to grade 12, a change that eventually led to the introduction of the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) in place of the older School Leaving Certificate (SLC).
The Ninth Amendment followed in 2074 BS (2017), introducing provisions related to school classification (Category A, B, C, and D based on facilities and performance), streams of secondary education (General, Sanskrit, and Technical/Vocational), and expanded roles for School Management Committees. Since then, education stakeholders including teachers' associations, school operators, and parents' groups — have repeatedly called for further updates to the regulation to address emerging issues such as teacher transfer mechanisms, digital and online education standards, school safety protocols, and administrative bottlenecks that have persisted since the shift to Nepal's federal governance structure
With the 10th Amendment now published in the Nepal Gazette, it carries the force of law and will guide the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, provincial education authorities, and local governments in the implementation of school-level policies going forward. Schools, teachers and education officials across the country are expected to align their practices with the newly amended provisions.
