[{"bbox": [96, 152, 1134, 313], "category": "Text", "text": "Nepal's Constitution (2015) guarantees the right to compulsory and free education up to basic level and free\nsecondary education to every citizen. Over the last two decades, the government, with support from the EU and\nother partners, has undertaken a series of national programmes in the education sector that have contributed to\nreducing education inequalities, improving governance, financing, and efficiency. However, despite great gains in\ngender equality, challenges remain, especially in learning outcomes and equity in education, especially for girls\nand marginalised groups."}, {"bbox": [96, 324, 1134, 405], "category": "Text", "text": "Following the promulgation of the new Constitution, the country has been undergoing a political, social and\ninstitutional transformation with the introduction of federalism. This has required the reorientation of the education\nsystem through structural and functional reforms, including the policy and regulatory frameworks."}, {"bbox": [96, 416, 1134, 629], "category": "Text", "text": "In view of the transformative role that education can play towards the attainment of the long-term social and\neconomic development goals of Nepal, as recognised by its Constitution and in accordance with the changing\nneeds of the federalized governance structure, a new School Education Sector Plan (SESP) for the period 2021-\n2030 has been elaborated. The SESP focuses in further ensuring equitable access to and participation in school\neducation for all children; enhancing the relevance and improving the quality of school education; and improving\nthe governance and management of school education. The final beneficiaries (rights-holders) are the approximately\n8.2 million pupils in Nepal from pre-school school to 12th grade. In addition, the direct beneficiaries (duty-bearers)\nare teachers working in schools (320 000) and education sector officials at different levels."}, {"bbox": [96, 640, 1134, 748], "category": "Text", "text": "Nepal's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST), the main duty-bearer, formulates overall\neducation policy. Local Governments are responsible for the service delivery of education at local level, which\nincludes financing the public schools, mainly through conditional grants, preparing local curricula, support teacher\nmanagement etc. Local governments will be in charge of the implementation of the main activities of the SESP."}, {"bbox": [96, 772, 1134, 907], "category": "Text", "text": "The EU has been a strong partner of the government in education since 1999. The EU Action is fully aligned with the Government's 15th National Development Plan and with the School Education Sector Plan (SESP 2021-2030). In addition, the action will deliver strong support to the ongoing federalisation process, by working directly with local governments and increasing their capacity to plan, budget, report and deliver inclusive, transparent and sustainable education services, and thus increasing their legitimacy for their constituents."}, {"bbox": [96, 917, 1134, 999], "category": "Text", "text": "The action accelerates the strategic involvement of the EU in education by joining forces with Finland and UNICEF and boosting the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) intervention in the areas of gender equity and quality of teaching."}, {"bbox": [96, 1010, 1134, 1194], "category": "Text", "text": "The action builds on the existing strong and coordinated mechanism of the current Sector Wide Approach,\ncombining several development partners, where the EU and Member States have a significant role in Nepal and\nseek high-level dialogue. The EU policy dialogue during the support to the new sector plan will be focused on\ninclusive and quality education. The complementary measures of this action as well as the EU's support to the\nCSO's role in the education sector will improve the role of EU in sector policy dialogue at federal, provincial and\nlocal level. Moreover, the EU will lead the harmonisation and the alignment of the Technical Assistance framework\nfor the SESP."}, {"bbox": [85, 1223, 355, 1254], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2. Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [96, 1270, 314, 1295], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### New federal structure"}, {"bbox": [96, 1296, 1134, 1403], "category": "Text", "text": "Local governments have now the mandate to develop and implement their own education plans and budgets alongside those of the federal government. However, the existing institutional setup and capacity varies across the 753 local governments, with a significant number of them lacking capacity to adequately execute key functions to run education services (analysis, planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation)."}, {"bbox": [96, 1428, 1134, 1536], "category": "Text", "text": "Furthermore, the mandates of the deconcentrated pre-federalism support structures (school supervisors, resource persons/centres, education training centres, etc.) have not yet been transferred to a decentralized model, further adding to the challenge for the local governments (LGs). There's no clear structure to support LGs to manage school education and support school-level planning for quality education and teacher professional development."}, {"bbox": [96, 1561, 1134, 1642], "category": "Text", "text": "The disparities in existing capacity and resources across regions are mainly concentrated in the historically marginalized remote mid- and far western part of Nepal (the Karnali and Sudurpashchim Provinces) and the central Terai (the Madhesh and part of the Lumbini Provinces). Additionally, the inter-governmental coordination and"}, {"bbox": [1037, 1680, 1143, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 5 of 26"}]