Conceptualizing Structural Reform for Nepal’s TVET Sector

Abstract

Reduction in enrolment is a growing concern in Nepal TVET which could have been caused by, inter alia, lack of career path for the graduates and therefore, has been the focus of this paper. Nepal’s long term TVET programs - under general secondary education that starts from Grade 9 and runs through Grade 12 and those under CTEVT - end at Diploma level unless some get exceptional enrolment opportunity at tertiary level. Therefore, structural reform is envisaged to help mitigate the problem in context by introducing TVET from Grade six as ‘elementary TVET’ followed by Level 3 (Grades 9 and 10) and as next step, Level 4 (Diploma) with three years learning followed by Level 5 (Advance Diploma). These reforms are envisaged to be based on NVQS operationalization. This paper, leaving some questions for readers, also suggests redefining TVET definition to widen sector coverage and changing the term ‘TVET’ itself.