4 Programme Relevance

This chapter examines the degree to which SESP objectives are consistent with partners’ and donors’ policies, country needs, and beneficiary requirements.

Relevance of the SESP is evident at a policy level given that the SESP objectives are basically a rewording of four objectives from the Secondary Education Development Plan. Education is one of the four priority areas of Nepal’s poverty reduction strategy paper and is an important recipient of government funding. The key SESP objectives for example are given due priority in the Tenth Plan (2002-07) and the Three-Year Interim Plan (2008-10). The original motive of SESP to be implemented in closer collaboration with local authorities is also in tandem with the GoN’s overall decentralisation strategy, which is to give a greater role to elected local governments and communities in the provision and management of education-related services.

There is coherence with programmes such as Education for All and its predecessor with their primary focus on improving the access and equity, quality and relevance, and institutional efficiency of the primary education sub-sector. These programmes have led to significant improvements especially in access to primary schooling and have increased the number of primary education graduates significantly. Without an expanded lower secondary and secondary level education in place, it would have been very difficult for the primary graduates to continue to the next, higher levels of education.

Moreover, given the tendency of the majority of development partners and organisations in Nepal to focus on primary education, the choice of Danida and ADB to focus on secondary education is highly relevant, especially in view of the sub-sector’s importance for strengthening productivity and private sector development through the education of young people with skills relevant for the needs of the market.

With respect to country needs and beneficiary requirements, it is notable that visits to the districts, education training centres and to the schools confirmed that all of the interventions provided through the project are responding to a strong need at the local level.

These impressions are confirmed by the national indicators especially for the districts in which the bulk of the investment were made: the ten PIDs located in the Western part of the country. Hence, the overall assessment is that SESP is a highly relevant programme. A more detailed assessment of the relevance of each of the three objectives of the programme is made in Chapters 6, 7 and 8.