Seminar on Civic Education for the Youth

Organised by Nepal Foundation For Advanced Studies

27 September 2004, Pokhara

Initiating the discussion Ananda Srestha, NEFAS executive director said that NEFAS' second programme in Pokhara was part of a plan to take civic education discussions to 42 places of the country out of which 18 places have already been covered so far. He said: The aim is to educate the young on democracy. We have already known how things go astray without the knowledge of democracy, particularly in the political circle. We are in the midst of a civil war like situation because of a lack of understanding of democracy and its norms. Is the situation due to lack of knowledge about democracy in the youth? This does not mean that youngsters should take a partisan line in politics just to be politically aware. But again, there is a need for the youngsters to be aware politically. This is vital. I would like the floor to come up with suggestions regarding the education of youth about democracy.

Three presentations were made in the beginning to generate comments from the participants which, according to plans, were to be included while revising a school text book on civic education that NEFAS has already published. Shiva Raj Dahal made the main presentation where he discussed the general trends affecting the Nepalese society. He blamed the lack of responsiveness on the part of the political sector to meet the existing and emerging challenges that are prevalent in the Nepalese society which, he said, was resulting in a general decline in every sector. Dahal focused his attention on the political sector and said that the best and the brightest were being pushed out of the political sector as a culture had developed whereby people without training and experience were joining politics resulting in the wrong political culture.

Prof. Gunanidhi Sharma picked up on this aspect of Dahal's presentation and said that the exclusion of the most productive force, the youth, from mainstream politics was marginalizing them to the extremes. They were either being pushed out of the country to pursue not only alternative opportunities but to seek menial jobs just to meet their hand-to-mouth requirements. Those unable to do that, he said, were being pushed to the jungle hence fueling the insurgency in the country. The resources in the country were not only being mismanaged but were conveniently being handed over to foreigners, the university professor said.

The theme of exploitation of local resources by energizing the youth was Bed Raj Acharya. Acharya said that local youth could not only be mobilized to impart political awareness in people, but they could be given the opportunity to do a host of other things that has a direct bearing on local governance. They could be instrumental in bringing in changes to local culture by infusing respect to labour, promoting social harmony, preserving traditions and participation.

FLOOR DISCUSSION

During the floor discussion, the commentators had their questions aimed at all the three participants. The following were the points raised by the commentators during the session:

• There were a lot of perversions in the past decade or so, but there were also achievements, like developments in the media, infrastructure development and the like. There is freedom of expression. These need to be included in the paper. In Pakistan, military rule has been supported by the intellectuals in a similar manner- by neglecting what the civilian governments achieved and focusing only on the negatives. Let us avoid this in Nepal.
  
• Nepalese youth have had to worry about politics rather than engage themselves in their studies and development work. They have had to react to the King's intention to remain active by organising strategies to cope with it through their struggle for democracy. This has not been mentioned in the paper.
  
• The main problem of Nepal is related with politics. Until the political situation improves, economic, social and other sectors follow suit, but until that happens- the Maoist problem or the October takeover by the King- no problems can be resolved.
  
• The impact of foreign employment and remittance to Nepalese society has not been discussed in the paper. The impact of all sorts of professionals going abroad needs to be discussed- for example they import the western culture and affect the Nepalese civil society.
  
• The paper is more subjective than anything else, as the paper writer has not tried to prove his points with research reports.
  
• The role of youth at the household level needs to be included in the paper. We see that youngsters are increasingly ignoring the tradition of respecting their elders.
  
• Nepalese expectations have been growing fast. We are being impacted by the western society in our thinking. We need to discuss ways to minimise that influence.
  
• When should be the youth be involved in politics-soon after their birth or later on? They should be politically energized only when they are capable of discrimination between the right and wrong.
  
• Our thinking should be righted before anything, before even politics. We cannot copy developments of other countries. We need to have our thinking rooted in the local context. Within a household, we see families divided along party lines. This is the result of people's expectations from political parties, which is the result of incentives that have been designed to attract them. This may be good for the politics, but what do we expect of families where no one agrees with no one else? This has polarized the whole society along partisan lines.
  
• Almost 25 per cent of the parliamentarians were from the education sector, meaning that these people were more involved in politics than teaching. In other words, we ourselves [teachers] have been instrumental in misleading the way.
  
• Drug abuse is another aspect of foreign influence on youth.
  
• The intention of the paper appears to be to show the way for political leaders. It does not analyse the causes of the problems, just the effects. I see that the paper is more inclined towards sociology rather than political science. The priority should be on the state, the people, democracy and then the government- in that order. The paper does not help much in how to make people aware. It is people who organise themselves without which nothing can be done.
  
• Brain drain has been highlighted in the presentations. The policymakers, politicians and intellectuals have been abandoning their citizenship for new ones. Why is that happening? It does not look like anyone is loyal to the nation.
  
• Youths are turning away as they are not included by the system. Unless they can articulate their interests, they do get turned away. So, it is not only isolated events that have marginalised the youths, but the system itself that is not giving them a place. The electoral process may be a part of the reason for the marginalising of people from participation. And, the system is not limited only to the political system, you have village leaders, family heads and other sectors as well. The paper only talks of political leaders.
  
• You say that democracy is a system where everyone has his share. So when the leader is bad, is he solely to blame or are the voters also to blame? Had there been proper civic education, the Laloo [Bihari] culture might not have been imported.
  
• The paper has tried to focus on the past 15 years and that may give the wrong impression on many. The whole country is running under one person's direction. Is there no blame reserved for the 30 years of Panchayat for the current situation? I hope civic education today is not the same as the one during the Panchayat.
  
• We need to impart that kind of civic education which also instills a sense of duty, not just a sense of individual right.
  
• Today's youth has turned away from every aspect of life, not just political and social life. This is due to a lack of proper education.
  
• I agree that all problems have come due to the political culture. Today's politics has been dependent on rumours and whims. The unstable politics has taken a toll on the nation. There is therefore a need to have an education that can give the youths direction.
  
• We know that there is corruption, and we also have honest people but they are mired in hand-to-mouth problem. This aspect needs to be included in policy.
  
• We have educated a lot of youths. What kind of education do we now want to impart? If we can address this question, we may be able to address most fears residing within us. What kind of education did we impart on the youth so far?
  
• Had the teachers of civic education, doing the actual teaching, been invited for the discussion, it would have been better. You have raised the question of dishonest politicians. During the Panchayat, youths organised themselves in an important way and history is witness to that. But the political players today have not been doing as expected. A tendency has been seen today where even students have been criticising politicians. If we do not try to correct this trend, we may be moving towards disaster.
  
• We need to have a book that addresses the need for civic education in the proper perspective. It should provide the features of a good citizen, a responsible citizen. Indians have been 'detoxifying' their history books, we need to understand that. BP's Atmabritanta talks about squabbles with the King. Our politicians have been following that trend in their behaviour by developing a politics of confrontation, with the King or the armed forces. The Constitution of 1990 was a compromise document.
  
• Response to any situation has been knee-jerk. Realities have not been accepted by rival parties, especially if they are out of power. The compromise devised by the Constitution still eludes them. You still see opportunism playing the high hand. Even the civil society or the intellectual class have not been able to provide any pressure against it.
  
• Regarding foreign policy, there is no preparation prior to foreign visits by politicians and prior signing treaties with other countries. Serious studies need to be carried out on issues like water resources before laying out a policy which can guide us.
  
• Every issue has its cause and effect. We need to understand the situation prior to 1990 before analysing what we have been facing today. We have been stressing on foreign employment and technical education, but why have they not yielded according to our plans. The manpower we produced have remained unemployed. Where did we go wrong? Should we be focussing now on tradition? What is the way out?
  
• Every activity we undertake is costly. Can we reduce it? Even water resources, the most abundant resource, is the costliest in Nepal.
  
• The civic sense is lacking in political parties more than in youths. Unless the older generation behave well, the younger generation cannot. And it is the older generation in Nepal that needs educating. Politicisation of even the apolitical has been the main reason for the problems we are facing today.
  
• The constitution was formulated by the communists and the Congress, but when a lack of trust between the two arose, it led to formulation of Article 127. Now that article appears to have given them a lot of headache. So we need to educate the politicians first.
  
• The youth have been misled. NEFAS has attempted to bring them on track. But we see a trend in our society where people appear to be doing exactly what they are asked not to. A notice that asks the public not to litter attracts them towards dirtying the place even further.
  
• The youth are being misled because of the behaviour of the educated class, not the villager. In the village, the child is educated according to tradition making them responsible to themselves, the family and the nation. The educated people give a lot of reason to make their children aspire for what cannot be achieved. This frustrates them, ultimately leading them to lose their way. The kind of education to be given to youths need to be envisioned by the state from time to time. Even ministers do not have a vision of what they should be doing for their country from their respective sectors.
  
• It is the neglect of the education sector that has led to the misleading of the youngsters. These days, we go to the classroom and we see that everyone has a crew cut hair. They have readied themselves for getting recruited to foreign armies.
  
• Children are recruited to politics right from the primary level of education. Not so in other countries. The result is that everybody is in despair today. Even NEFAS cannot bail anyone out of that despair.
  
• A breed of urbanites are growing that is creating problems for the nation. Both foreign and domestic factors may have a role here. There is a need to diagnose the problems in a holistic manner so that we can prescribe a proper solution.
• We discussed the problems, but what are the solutions? I think the time has come for us to come out with a book presenting only the solutions or a seminar that focuses only on solutions.

While replying to queries the three presenters promised to include the relevant suggestions and made clarifications where sought. The chairperson, Dil Bahadur Chhettri, made his final remarks asking the presenters to also define the civil society and civic education. He said that the social perversions could have been due to a lack of a feeling of patriotism among people. The problem has not only afflicted the youth but also the elderly. How do we impart the feeling of patriotism? He said that intellectuals have not done enough in this regard. "We are the ones promoting opportunism instead of sensitivity to social norms. It is us who should be designing the society and not only blaming the politicians. Education should not only be based on equality, but contextual as well. Secondly, the university too should be having civic education as well, even if it means replacing Nepal Parichaya," Chhetri said.

The seminar ended with a vote of thanks from Ananda Srestha.