Dr Rajendra KC is the Principal  at Southwestern State College. Upashana Neupane of The Corporate talked with him about educational sector in Nepal and stand of his college to provide quality education. Excerpts:

Private sector involvement in education sector is often criticized for over commercialization. What is your view?

I disagree with the statement. Some private institutions activities are responsible for the criticism received by the entire sector. Every institution has to practice what they have agreed to while receiving affiliation from different Boards. All Institutions have to be healthy competitors to reduce criticism regarding the commercialization. There should be categorization in private institution for the private sector to be strong. 

How do you assess higher secondary education in Nepal? 

Higher Secondary education Board (HSEB) should be more transparent and strict to provide quality education. HSEB has to monitor all the colleges time and again. HSEB should vie for providing quality education rather than increasing the number of colleges. Since its establishment, HSEB has provided the affiliations but its monitoring is very weak.

What are the top three priorities of your college to improve education sector? 

We have been different than others in providing quality education. Our college is an ISO 9001-2008 certified college and we have trained professionals and we carry out regular activities such as presentation classes and civic education classes. If I have to prioritize three things, then they would be presentation classes, research and social works for students. 

What are your suggestions for the overall improvement of higher education? 

HSEB and TU should be stricter in their activities. Exams and other educational activities should be carried out on time. It appears that these two authorities have been very traditional. They should introduce programmmes and trainings for the betterment of students so that Nepali students can compete with the global market. 

What are unique features of your college? 

We never say that we are the best, but what we claim is we don’t compromise on the quality of education. We are here to help students achieve success in their lives. In the beginning, we only had 136 students, but today we have a total of 1600 students in our college. We firmly believe that teaching and research should go hand in hand, and we try to do the same. We conduct regular presentation classes and make our students participate in social activities. I think our students can compete with those of any other colleges, and will prove successful in the international arena as well.