Seminar on Civic Education for the Youth

Organised by Nepal Foundation For Advanced Studies

Chandranighahpur, 19 June 2006

NEFAS Executive Director Anand Srestha welcomed the participants in the beginning saying that the seminar was being held in populated areas for relevant feedbacks for the book that NEFAS has published. "I know that you as teachers of the subject have comments to make and I encourage you to provide us with your experiences," he said before leaving the floor for a presentation by Prof. Ram Kumar Dahal.

The professor, encouraged by the vast interest shown by participants in other seminars on the constituent assembly, and given that it was the hot topic of the day, made a short presentation on the subject. He described the various models of the assembly that were being discussed in Nepalese political circles today. But, he said that the available models used in S. Africa, India other countries cannot suit our purpose in the context of our own unique diversity, unless we modify them to make them inclusive. "The main question is about representation and how we carry out the task to include every ethnic, regional or linguistic group should preoccupy our minds. The political, economic and social situations must be studied properly to have a proper model of representation. Such an inclusive model would also gel well with the inclusive democracy we are talking about these days", he said.

The Professor also dealt with another debate regarding state restructuring. "Federalism, secularism and election reforms from fist-past the post to proportional representation are some of the ideas being floated", he said. His contention was that since all these are debatable issues they need to be discussed properly if we are to have a system that suits our needs.
This was followed by Shivaraj Dahal's presentation on "Civic Education for the Young Generation" where he dealt with the need to educate the younger generation on civic responsibility. His presentation linked the negative social, political, cultural and even economic tendencies seen in the country with the lack of civic education. Dahal said that without proper education the youth of the day will not be able to make any contribution to the family, the society and the nation as a whole.

During the floor discussion that proceeded participants said that some of the topics were too cursorily treated while others said that they were ideals that would not materialize in the present Nepalese context. It would rather pay to focus on their rebellious tendencies and channel all that energy towards democratic behaviour, said one participants. He said that for that to happen, more efforts should be made to explain constitutionalism and legal issues than at present.

While some participants wanted include civic as a subject right from the primary school level, others wanted greater emphasis in diversifying the education efforts to the non-formal education sector, as it is the rural people who need to be made aware of their rights and responsibilities the most. Most of the participants exhibited their teacher's trait of cautiousness quite plainly when they expressed their dissatisfaction with the need to give their comments immediately after the presentation. They wanted more time to study the paper, the issues raised and the ramifications that result before making any comments.

The seminar also had some interesting moments of discussion on politics. Regarding a questioner's curiosity about the debates going on about the kind of democracy that Nepal needed, Prof. Ram Kumar Dahal said, "Switzerland is called a direct democracy. They have a confederation including cantons that are more powerful than the centre. The only condition is that they do not challenge central decisions and that they follow republicanism. Any citizen can go to the parliament and present his views, bills or proposals for discussion. This does not happen in our democracy. Switzerland can be a model democracy," he said. But, again, he ended with this qualifier to additional queries regarding whether it would suit Nepal:

• This is not just a political question. It involves economists, sociologists and experts of other like disciplines. We cannot copy any country because our situation is unique. A lot of questions regarding inclusion can be raised. When we reach that position where we have to make the choice, a lot of clashes are therefore inevitable with a plan that is not thought out properly. If the problem is to be resolved permanently, we need to think hard.
• We know that the constituent assembly can provide a way out but how do we organize it? No one has answered that crucial point. There is more that people must sacrifice to attain inclusion than there is to gain. Therefore, it is challenging.

Shivaraj Dahal made a few points of his own during the reply session to inform the participants about what the seminar effort was all about:

• Then teachers here appear to be using the first edition book while we have already gone into the third edition which includes more of the existing curriculum.
• The book came into being after seminar papers were published. The book began to be used by schools. Later, we started updating to suit the needs of the students. The book is much more relevant today.
• Please feel free to email us or fax or post your comments for inclusion if you think you need time to study the paper before making comments.
• The seminar promotes democracy and helps strengthen civic education.

The seminar came to a close after the traditional chairperson's remark furnished by Yogendra Prasad Yadav:
Society is dynamic and the dynamism must be managed and directed towards the desired objectives. For this, discussions and consultations are necessary. We may need to come out of our shackles and the way that is done need to be discussed. Civic education is also one topic we need to discuss and make the citizens aware about their roles and responsibilities.

The Musahar communities do not even have primary education. How do we give them civic education and bring them to the national mainstream? While talking of Nepal as a whole country, we find a huge group of people that need civic education. This means we need a separate entity to provide civic education.

Regarding awareness, if the politicians themselves do not know what the constituent assembly is, what will he tell the people about it to make them participate. There is a lot of homework necessary if the politicians are to materialize their commitment. We need to be perfect on the statistics, at first. Only then can we talk of the actual state of diversity and how it can be represented and included. Had there been civic education in our curriculum earlier, the people would have been more aware and a lot of questions would already have been answered.

There are traditional values handed down by the family and the society to people, which is more or less being taken up by the new generation. But there is also something that the leaders choose to teach their younger counterparts on their own. It is here that problems are seen. We are promoting consumerism without developing their capabilities.