Policy & Planning

Non-Formal Education Policy

Non-formal education centre has been delivering non-formal education services for various target groups which include illiterate people living in remote areas and hinterlands, those living below poverty line and the wage laborers working in factories and farms. NFEC basically conducts the literacy, post-literacy and awareness raising programs. It also implements the programs related to life long and continuous education, skill development and income generation. It has been providing alternative schooling opportunities to the out-of-school children and school drop-outs through open education mode. NFEC helps the out-of-school youths by providing training and support for developing technical and vocational skills useful for earning livelihood at the local level. NFEC has made efforts to pay special attention to the people who have problems caused by their ethnicity, language, gender and physical disabilities and make non-formal education programs inclusive.

NFEC has been facing several problems and challenges in course of launching non-formal education programs. They are those of vision, management and program implementation. Some of the problems and challenges are those of building consensus on the extended features and dimensions of non-formal education; coordinating the NFE programs; mainstreaming the excluded section of the community and designing the programs for the persons and groups of different learning needs and abilities.

It was a felt need for long that the policies and strategies of non-formal education be specified and approved by the government. The Government of Nepal (GON) has recently approved the Non-Formal Education Policy-2006 which clarifies the broad concepts of non-formal education with clearly formulated policies and strategies of non-formal education of the country. It is hoped that they will help as the policy guidelines for the concerned government as well as non-government agencies involved in conducting non-formal education programs.

  • Policy 1: Non-Formal Education will be expanded to provide the academic and practical knowledge, skills and information to different age and levels of learners.
  • Policy 2: NFE equivalent to FE will be provided to those who are deprived of educational opportunity or who dropped out of education
  • Policy 3: Special provisions will be made to increase access to education
  • Policy 4: Development and distribution of curricular and learning materials will gradually be decentralized and localized.
  • Policy 5: Community Learning Centres (CLCs) will be developed as the centre of educational activities to ensure equitable access to quality non-formal education for all.
  • Policy 7: Networking and coordination and partnership will be maintained with the agencies involved in NFE for resource generation and mobilization
  • Policy 8: Inclusive education policy will be adopted to ensure access, quality and co-existence
  • Policy 9: Common database will be developed and shared among the agencies involved in NFE programs.
  • Policy 10: Training, research, self monitoring and innovation will be included in NFE programs to build the capacity of the human resources involved in the NFE programs.
  • Policy 11: Government and non-government organizations and private agencies will be mobilized to meet the targets of ‘Education for all.’
  • Policy 12: The financial management of non-formal education will be made compatible with the economic condition and policy of the government.
  • Policy 13: Local bodies will play the regulatory role for the management of non-formal education. Any of the modalities mainly from the following four will be applied to implement NFE programs:
    1. Local body modality
    2. NGO modality
    3. CLC modality
    4. Educational institution modality
  • Policy 14: NFEC will coordinate and collaborate with government, non- governmental, and international organizations to create cooperative environment among the agencies involved in NFE programs.
  • Policy 15: The literacy campaign will be developed as the main policy strategy for the eradication of illiteracy and local agencies will be made responsible for the program.
  • Policy 16: The agencies involved in NFE will develop their policies and strategies within the framework of the policies and strategies included in this policy document.