Civic Education for the Youth

Seminar organized by Nepal Foundation for Advanced Studies

13 August 2005, Birtamod

The last in this year's series of debates on civic education that Nepal Foundation for Advanced Studies has been organizing was held in Birtamod, a booming urban node of the eastern plains. Although NEFAS had organized civic education seminars in the region, this was the first in Jhapa District. Participants mainly included teachers, political workers and journalists. They tried to contribute their maximum to the discussion in spite of a number of participants leaving for another education programme they had to attend to. The discussion was chaired by a renowned educationist of the region who is also a teacher, Dataram Sharma.

Ananda Srestha, executive director of NEFAS, welcomed the participants saying: NEFAS is a non-profit academic organization which has focused its attention in holding academic discussions the outcome of which is published in the end to be disseminated to the academic and policy circles.

We have been touring throughout the Kingdom to organize seminars on civic education for several years, and security situation allowing, we have plans to continue the discussions to other parts of the Kingdom as well.

The idea for the seminar came when dissatisfaction started surfacing regarding the promises offered by the multiparty democratic system restored in 1990. We therefore decided to focus on the youth to energize them towards committing themselves to strengthening the system. Today, we have seen that civic education has been introduced as a course of study for students in schools. In spite of the setbacks in introducing civic education in Class 12 from this year, hoping that it will be introduced next year, we think that a lot of improvements can be made in the available material on the subject. I hope your comments will contribute in enriching the book that we have developed for the purpose.

This brief introductory remark was followed by Prof. Gunanidhi Sharma's presentation on the role of the youth in the economic development of the country.

Excerpts from his presentation: How do we energize the youth in contributing positively to the social transformation taking place in the country. The world today is overly impacted by technology and the developments taking place. In Nepal too, we see that our villages are getting affected by technology, particularly information technology. Observation shows that the technological change and the social change we require have not been going hand in hand. This might not apply very much for Jhapa which is highly developed in many senses. The development level declines as we go west from here. The challenge for us is to transfer the progress that Jhapa has achieved to other parts of the country.

The differences in development levels that we witness is also known as economic dualism in our parlance. Still, our economy has not been commercialized to the extent that we would like it to. Consumption should grow for that to happen. The security situation has created further restrictions. All this is a hurdle to our pace of development. The society thus finds its course stalled. How do we break the deadlock? This calls for a capable and mature leadership. A leadership that seeks participation. It is here that the role of the youth becomes vital. Not that the Nepalese youth is not up to the challenge.

Nepalese youth made vital contributions during the World Wars. It was the war veterans that brought about changes in the existing Sati system and slavery. Many of them even took part in the Indian independence movement. This was all because of the energy in Nepalese youth. Can we expect the same kind of contribution in the present context? We want them badly to re-organize the society.

The widespread frustration among the youth at present has led many to leave the country and many to go underground, away from the mainstream. The frustration must be the result of our own weaknesses in shaping their course. The national responsibility appears to have been eluding them. This is policy failure. It is now our job to bring them back. Their socialization should be designed in such a way as to mobilize them back to the mainstream.

The policy weaknesses have to do with many factors. One is the relationship with foreign aid donors. The programmes are donor-driven but the problems are local. About two million are unemployed and 300,000 are added each year to the figure. Add that to the under-employment data and then it reaches to about six million.

Unless we make our economic programmes participatory, not just political ones, the problems are going to multiply. Education is the best way to change their mindset to make the youth participation oriented. The best age to start the process is the secondary and higher secondary level students. It is then when they have a sensitive but active brain. If we can include them in the process we can see sea change in just a decade. The below-growth rate productivity that we have will rise quickly. And, unless we raise the productivity, we are sure to fall into the debt trap- a situation when we will have to borrow just to pay back earlier loans. And the low equilibrium level ensures that we are mired in poverty trap. To break the vicious circle we have to raise productivity levels. It is to do so that we will have to change the existing development paradigm into a participatory and more redistributive one.

Participation should not be limited to human participation, but participation of all the resources. This means that we need to decentralize our efforts. Community development in the forestry sector is a good example to follow. This will restore our indigenous technologies and provide a momentum to their paces of development. We will have to reverse our over-dependence on the World Bank and IMF driven development paradigms which have been widening the economic inequalities creating further disintegrations in the society.

If we can reach the thinking of the youth and orient them towards resolving these problems, we can bring about the necessary changes.

Shiva Raj Dahal's presentation talks about the negative tendencies in the political sector affecting the youth. Instead of orienting them to contribute to the society they are being used by politicians for petty gains which has led to a crisis of unmanageable proportions, he said, and called for imparting the necessary knowledge through civic education. This will turn the youth into responsible citizens and make them aware to contribute to the society instead of getting involved in destructive disintegrative activities.

Dahal discusses the virtues of democracy at length and criticizes the contemporary trends among youth seeking foreign employment or taking up arms as a way out of the political, economic and social crisis they have been subjected to. Civic education can give them the direction they lack, was his thesis.

EXCERPTS FROM FLOOR COMMENTS

• The paper deals with political, economic, social and religious sectors. I find several weaknesses in the presentation. For example, the paper talks only of restrictions on entrance to Hindu shrines. Why only Hindu? Why not describe things in a more general manner?
• Also negative attitudes alone will not bring resolutions, particularly when things are isolated out of context and criticized. We need to be able to take things in a more holistic manner. We will be able to do nothing without participation of the youth. The vacuum in their role is very conspicuous today. They should come forth to end autocracy and restore citizen's rights. The political party leadership has not been able to bring the youth to positions from where they can contribute their energy.
• People need to be made aware about three 'S's. Only then can we end any possibility for authoritarianism in the future. They are System; Sanstha or organization; and, Satta or rule. It is here we made mistakes in the past allowing authoritarianism to raise it head.
• The organizers should have called other party representatives as well to participate in the discussion.
• Regarding Prof. Sharma's presentation, and his discussion of the role of state and the private sector, is he promoting the state's role? Is it because of the current upheaval which is marginalizing our private sector's role?
• The Contemporary Society syllabus we have needs to add one more chapter. The foreign employment and globalization issues that we discussed also need to be included in the curriculum, especially in the light of the civic education course being perceived as being too short.
• Those youth leaving the country or leaving the societal mainstream that you discussed should also be participating in these seminars. Would a resolution come about that way? Because we have to bring them back to the mainstream by making them aware about the situation. Seminars in hotels will not be able to bring those underground into the mainstream.
• Will we be able to question the wrongs being committed by the government? We talk a lot of rights at times, even assigning particular rights as issues belonging to particular groups or organizations. We usually think about human rights as something that only legal experts should be delving in. But the fact is that everyone is concerned regarding human rights. Not just seminars, but even textbooks should be dealing in these subjects so that students can implement the knowledge to become good citizens.
• You showed concern about the youth leaving the mainstream. You talked about the weaknesses of the past 12 years. But what were the reasons leading to the weaknesses? Why had the youths been forced to leave?
• We are talking about being lifted up by someone else, not gearing ourselves towards climbing up on our own. The paper has provided no solution on that.
• Also I do not find recommendations to the problems raised.
• Prof. Sharma talked about economic participation and not just political participation. But we have a habit of raising issues and not going the full length in seeing that the issue is dealt with properly. First, plan, then implement and then complete. Only then can we get results. I hope the issue of participation finds a proper implementation.
• The paper sets out to seek the youth's role in civic education and shows concern over the large number of youth leaving the mainstream. But we have not discussed plans and programmes of bringing them back to the mainstream. We need to identify the youths and then devise plans according to the kind of youth that find themselves straying away from the mainstream to different destinations. Separate programmes are needed to deal with separate kinds of youth-- low income, middle income etc.
• The paper should list the duties and the steps the youth must take as a solution.
• Please include 'the role of the state in bringing the youth back in. Those leaving the country or going underground are mostly those left unemployed. Civic education alone will not help here. Even if he or she is conscious about his/her duties, this will not solve his/her unemployment problems. The state has a direct role here in providing employment.
• The rise in population is also leading to fragmentation of assets and land, leading to further problems.
• The gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Here, too the problem is unemployment, not civic education.
• To make the paper even better, you should include ways to further social integration. The main problem we face today is integrated development. Participation is vital. We need inclusive democracy for that to happen.
• The root cause behind the lack of civic education in political cadres has not been identified by the paper. Why have the youths not been able to participate? The question is will the Westminister model we have be able to incorporate inclusive democracy? No. The paper does not deal with this aspect. How do we therefore build institutions for inclusive democracy? Should we talk about federal structures? Should we talk about ethnic and indigenous minorities? We need to hold open discussion regarding this. Alternative options have to be laid bare for everyone to find out what they are and how they might serve us.
• Indigenous technologies are on the decline and there is no way to bring them back.
• Corruption is engulfing the thinking class, who are already educated in civics. The problem therefore will not be resolved by imparting civic education to the youth. Corruption is happening with people who are already educated in civics. People appear to be more concerned with a livelihood rather than ethics and civics. Our poverty is the root cause behind the lack of civic sense. Not just income poverty but also psychological deprivation, as even those with enough means are leaving the country- for the developed countries like the United States. Now, what are the ways to solve the problems that we raised?
• Political workers have become political zealots, while there are also those who do not have any faith in politics. Both these tendencies are not good for the nation. How do we correct these tendencies?
• Several issues have been left out from the paper. For example, it talks about formulating right policies. But will policies alone help? Implementation is more important, which it doesn't talk about.
• Problems brought about by globalization exist everywhere. Let us look at how other countries are dealing with such issues and see if we can work with similar solutions.
• How will the youth be able to snatch power away from the grip of a powerful few? How will political workers be energized towards that?
• The paper talks of unemployment problems but does not give ideas about how to end it. I think there are three ways to solve this problem. The state should think about how to prevent youths from leaving the country. The political parties must help that happen. We must mobilize the youth in the agriculture sector. And, the business sector must play its part in alleviating the problem. Money lenders have been a crucial player in loaning out money to youths to send them away to foreign lands. If we deal with these three factors, there would be some control over the number of youths leaving the country.
• Citizens are people who work for the nation. Anti-national people were expelled from the country in the past. Youths are those who have the capability to work for the nation.
• Going abroad for work and bringing in remittance will not develop the country. We need to industrialize the country right here. Until we realize this, Nepal will never develop.
• The paper talks about the conflicts- ethnic, economic, political and the like. But not the class conflicts that we see today. Do classes have any role in bringing the youth back in to the mainstream.
• You talk of corruption, but what is the source of corruption? There is no talk of judicial corruption in the discussion. We should not hide such vital issues.
• We have a habit of saying one thing and doing something else. We need to learn to match word with deeds. This should also be part of the education.
• Even developed countries that regularly hold elections barely have 25 per cent participation in polls. Regarding participation, we are better off. Our problem is that we use the wrong means to attract voters to the polls. We make voters corrupt. This is what defames democracy. People believe that you can win an election only when you are the one conducting them. This is another area of misuse of power and corruption. How do we prevent this from happening?
• There is no educating of students regarding the culture of the country at the moment. Neither the families nor the schools have geared themselves towards orienting the children towards the national cultures.
• Including civic education in the curriculum alone will not turn the student into a proper citizen. He or she will only take it as something that has to be learnt to pass the examination. This has to do with the education system as a whole. Another aspect of the curriculum is that not all schools follow the same curriculum. This will not help the situation.
• The problem we face today is that we do not have full democracy just like political leaders have been saying. The Maoist students do not believe that the democracy we have is proper democracy. They believe that they must not participate in the mainstream of something which they do not consider the mainstream. How will you make efforts to bring them back to the 'mainstream' in such a situation? What does NEFAS think, is the democracy we have a 'complete' one?
• The scriptures we have say that people are motivated by personal will, by the desire for social welfare and also motivated by the will for out-of-the world or heavenly desires. We see that today's society has forgotten about the latter two and focusing solely on the former-- selfishness. Hence imparting education to people about our ancient literature and scriptures should also be part of today's civic education.
• Also, most of the reasons that we assign as to why the youth are leaving are all guesswork. We have not even asked them why they have left the mainstream.
• Students know what civic education is but what will motivate them towards practicing it?
• The state, parties and the communities- these three have a direct role in civic education. The state's role has not been stressed in the paper. Human traffickers are the ones who have been mainly responsible for sending the youth away. The paper should unearth the steps that the state must play in alleviating the situation.

REPLY TO QUERIES

Ananda Srestha: It is indeed our objective to have complete democracy, but the limitations that we have is that we are an academic organization and we can only open the eyes of the policy makers. The implementation aspect is not our responsibility even though this is a very weak aspect of the Nepalese development process.

Shiva Raj Dahal: A 1996 seminar on teaching democracy for the youth has now developed into this effort- to produce books on civic education. The comments that you made available to me will contribute as an important input for enriching the paper.

It is important that we involve ourselves in politics and it is not necessary that you have to be a party worker for that.

Democracy only yields through a slow process. We have to be patient for that.

My paper only discusses some weaknesses of the government in being unable to absorb the unemployed youth into the national mainstream. The relevant comments that you provided will find a suitable place in the final draft of the paper.

Prof. Gunanidhi Sharma: I do not believe in contradictory relations between the state and the market. I would like to see them in a complementary relationship. The state should realize its own responsibility and be able to protect areas, which if handled improperly, have the potential to destroy the economy.

The problem we have is one of poverty, seeking massive state intervention. This intervention is particularly necessary in areas where the market cannot reach and where the market distorts the problems even further making them intractable. The state should also develop the leading sectors of the economy and promote social justice to make the nation prosper.

Regarding participatory democracy, I am of the opinion that not just politics but economic participation is as necessary, if not more. This leads to local autonomy in governance.

Resource participation means that all natural resources including human, or youth, participation must be allowed for the prosperity of the nation. Wasting it through international treaties and conspicuous consumption, like giving away hard currency earned through remittance, to those going for spending trips abroad, is not productive.

Chairperson's remarks

I thank the organizers for initiating the discussions on issues of national importance. We need to devise our education system according to our needs, and not how others tell us to do. I am hopeful that the policies that get formulated will focus on national needs.