Source: Asia News
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=12627&size=A
Confessional schools will be recognised by the state and receive public funds but must in return adapt to a national curriculum. This change does not pose any problem to Catholic schools, which are among the best in the country, but not so for all confessional schools which must implement major changes.
“Small amounts of money have been released for the first five grades in elementary schools for a total of NPR 12,000 (US$ 175) for institutions with less than 100 pupils and NPR 24,000 for those with 100 to 200 pupils,” Jiwan Sharma Paudel, deputy director of the Department of Education (DoE), told AsiaNews. And some schools are already implementing the government curriculum and making suggestions on ways to improve it.
The curricula in madrassas (Islamic schools), ashrams (Hindu retreats) and gumbas (Buddhist monasteries) are very much religion-oriented. In order to facilitate their incorporation into the school system, the government has accepted that grade 5 exams will incorporate confessional educational programmes but pupils will eventually be able to opt for grade 6 in any certified school.