The silent crisis in Nepali music education

In 2017, singer Muskan Ranabhat enrolled at Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus, Tribhuvan University, to pursue her Bachelor’s degree in music. She expected to study various areas of music, including music technology, music production, different instruments, and elements of Western music. However, her expectations were not met. She was compelled to focus solely on Eastern music, specialising only in vocals, as the university’s curriculum was limited to that.

“Music education was not as fruitful as I hoped,” says Ranabhat. “I wanted to learn the diverse side of music, but the course did not allow me to do so.”