Status of School Library Development in Nepal

The school education system of Nepal consists of Pre-Primary, Primary (Grades 1-5), Lower Secondary (Grades 6-8), Secondary (Grades 9-10), and Higher Secondary Education (10+2). There are basically three types of schools on the basis of management: (i) Public schools, (ii) Community-based schools and (iii) Private schools. Actually, higher secondary schools are totally managed by the private sector alone. The total number of schools in different grades and sectors are as follows.


Introduction
The school education system of Nepal consists of Pre-Primary, Primary (Grades 1-5), Lower Secondary (Grades 6 -8), Secondary (Grades 9 -10), and Higher Secondary Education (10+2). There are basically three types of schools on the basis of management: (i) Public schools, (ii) Community-based schools and (iii) Private schools. Actually, higher secondary schools are totally managed by the private sector alone. The total number of schools in different grades and sectors are as follows. The approximate ratio of pupils and teachers in a classroom differs in public, community and private schools of urban and rural communities. Schools in the urban areas have more fluctuation in the ratio, ranging from 20 to 45 in private schools and 80 to 100 pupils in public schools. The aggregate ratio of teachers and pupils in a classroom are presented in the following

Proportion of schools that have a person assigned to manage the library :
Though there is a shortage of qualified personnel, almost all schools have a person assigned to manage the library, mostly a teacher cum librarian.

Training for the individuals who work in the school libraries
Only 18 schools (11%) were found to have trained librarians and the rest of the librarians were untrained. 32 schools (19.6%) had a library committee while other schools had no such committee.

Average number of books in the library
Most libraries have collected textbooks, magazines, and reference books (147 schools i.e. 90% were found to be in this condition). 16 schools (10%) had facilities such as audio-tapes, video cassettes and CD-ROM. The highest collection of books was 3,046 numbers, whereas the minimum was 67. Private schools are better equipped than other schools.

Language or medium of instruction in the schools
90% of the government and community schools use Nepali language while 90% of private schools use English language as the medium of instruction. However, regional languages like Maithali and Newari are also used for students' convenience.

Activities frequently undertaken in schools
The students generally use the libraries in a class-wise, close-access system. 18 schools (11%) had catalogued the books and issued library cards. 33 schools (20%) were listing in the register while issuing the books. Some activities like book display and information projects were undertaken to develop the students' reading habits. Few schools had creative activities such as story writing, project work, drawing and painting, educational toys and other non-book materials. In this regard, NASL's pilot project on the establishment of model school library in Kathmandu valley has been an important milestone. Various schools, influenced by NASL's activities, conducted an interaction program about the role of libraries among parents and community people. NASL's member schools also organized elocution programs on the importance of school libraries in their respective schools.

Centralized services
There are some schools that have trained staffs who perform centralized services such as registration, classification, cataloguing, reference services, lending etc as the centralized services of a school library

Support services
The government provides in service teachers training in every year.There is no library budget in the govt. schools but nominal fees are charged in private schools to be used for library development, which differ from school to school, ranging between Rs. 25 to Rs. 200 being charged annually. There have been no support services from the district, regional or national offices till date. The govt. is just awakening to this problem in the 1 0 th national plan. The government declared Rs.1000 would be issued to each and every school to develop book corner only in grade one.

Administration and coordination system of school libraries
The Ministry of Education is the policy formulating body for the education system in Nepal. Under its guidance, the Department of Education is the major stakeholder of school education. There are five regional education offices in five different regions and 75 district educational offices all over the country. In all the 75 districts, there are many resource centers depending on the number of schools. In each resource center, resource persons are appointed and their main responsibility is to observe the schools and conduct teachers' training. Under the Ministry of Education, there are two major libraries: Keshar Library and Nepal National Library, which are however working as public libraries and are not concerned about school libraries as yet. Realising the importance of school library, the govt. of Nepal emphasized the topic in 8, 9 and 10 th Five year plan. But until now, there is no clear-cut policy about it. The Tenth plan, as it is just running, has emphasized "to encourage establishing and managing libraries in each and every educational institution". The govt. hasn't yet introduced complete rules and regulations about school libraries.
Emerging from theoretical existence and uselessness and library services the concept of using libraries is now gradually coming into practice. The government of Nepal seems to have understood by now the importance of functioning of libraries, which is apparent in the policy being formulated under the 10 th national plan.

Special Projects
As mentioned earlier the govt. of Nepal in connection with the library program only in its infant stage, because it has just included policy formulation in its 10 th plan. The NASL, since its establishment has conducted many activities such as Seminars on the importance of school libraries , on the situation of community based school libraries in Nepal and on the development of children's literatures, and NASL also conducted teachers' training based on pedagogic exercise.

Future plans
The future plans of the organization are as follows: Thus, NASL has stepped forward and is determined to fulfill the requirements in this sector even as the government is just awakening to this crisis.

Conclusion
TU Central library and information center has already established information literacy as a taught subject in their degree level. Similarly, if we include this subject from the school level, it will be more useful. So schools must give attention to develop rich resource center with electronic devices in order to enhance the potentialities. Even the students who are not affordable to continue after SLC can do their job effectively and efficiently in any field and those who can continue, can compete in the international level as it helps in retrieving the relevant development information to solve the problem at hand.