Revisiting the ‘Rashtrabhasha Shiksha Pranali’

It contributed to the further entrenchment of the Nepali language in our public life and civil service.

In an earlier column which argued for the writing of plural histories of school education in Nepal (March 15, 2024), I suggested that researchers could write about specific initiatives that expanded schooling opportunities. As a possible example, I mentioned the name of Gopal Pande (1913-78), the founder of the Nepali Shiksha Parishad (NSP, established in 1951) and its “Rashtrabhasa Shiksha Pranali” (RBSP) initiative. Four weeks from today, the NSP will have completed 73 years of existence as one of Nepal’s oldest continuously run non-governmental organisations. Hence, it is suitable for us to revisit that schooling experiment.