There is a general tendency that the first choice for students who have performed well in Secondary School Examination is either science or management, followed by humanities and education. Though there is a huge scope for these subjects, a student has to perform well at the plus two level. A mediocre performance in these subjects is a hard sell in the job market after graduation.
Though technical courses under the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) are prioritised only by those who have not performed well in the SEE, its graduates, even those who secure only satisfactory grades, can get jobs immediately after graduation. Similarly, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has initiated courses in Law for grades 11 and 12, in an effort to meet the ever-increasing need for law graduates in government jobs.
Currently, technical and vocational courses, whose durations range from one year to 18 months, are available to students who have GPAs lower than 1.6 as they are not allowed to enroll into the general stream. They can study to become sub-overseers in civil, electrical and mechanical engineering and also can take up survey, lab assistantship, entrepreneurship development, ANM, and CMA courses, among others. The CTEVT has allocated 25,000 seats for these courses. Similarly, under a year-long course, SEE students can take cooking, plumbing, welding, carpentry, wiring, among other courses.
The officials at the Council claim while those who have pursued the general stream have had to struggle in the job market even after completing their masters, while CTEVT students are in position to take up jobs immediately after completing the 12-month or 18-month course.
Every year, vacancies in the Public Service Commissions are left unfulfilled, suggesting there is abundant scope for law graduates. Keeping in mind the scarcity of students of law, the Ministry introduced Law as a stream in grades 11 and 12. The 2 students studying Law can gain a sound background on jurisprudence, constitutional law and human rights which would provide a base for pursuing Bachelors study in law. Currently, students wanting to pursue a LLB (Bachelors degree in Law) must have completed a three-year Bachelors degree in any other subject or sit through a five-year programme.
Those who take Law at the HSS level can now directly join the LLB degree, saving two years in the process. Those who don’t want to study law at the Bachelors level can take up other streams as well.
The law curriculum prepared by the Curriculum Development Centre has 1,000 as full marks, with the core law subjects alone comprising 700 marks. One has to study three other subjects worth 300 marks along with compulsory English and Nepali in grade 11, while four subjects on Law and compulsory English have been included in the curriculum for grade 12.
The students learn about the basics of law promulgation as well as procedural, criminal and civil and human rights law among others. The opportunities in government jobs for law graduates have increased after the country adopted a federal system, as now even local levels have the authority to formulate laws and carryout legal proceedings. Municipalities, sub-metropolitan and metropolitan cities have judicial units led by a deputy chief. They formulate their own laws and regulations and have their own endorsement process.
source: the kathmandu post, 1 July 2018
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