The 41th Management Review Conference, organized by Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT), was inaugurated by the Honorable Minister of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST), Mr. Ashok Kumar Rai at Nepal Banepa Polytechnic Institute (NBPI), Banepa, Kavre. The conference is scheduled for 3 days, from October 11 to 13, 2023. Executives working in the CTEVT system, especially school principals and directors from different divisions and province offices, have been participating in the conference.

Speaking at the program, the Honorable Minister and the chief guest of the program said that the contribution made by CTEVT since its establishment was commendable. He encouraged all the CTEVT executives to do better to face the challenges. According to him, the understanding of education had changed over time. He cited the renowned Nepali poet Bal Krishna Sama, “jyan mardachha hasera, roi bigyan mardachha” [Knowledge dies laughing whereas science dies crying]. He highlighted the need for teaching human values to the students in the present time. He said that the council should focus on the quality instruction rather than the expansion of programs and institutes. He remarked that CTEVT would run rather than move if all the CTEVT employees worked as a team with honesty. The Honorable Minister reiterated that he wanted to pay the debt to motherland as the minister and requested all to contribute for the nation.

Mr. Deepak Prasad Poudel, Director of the Technical Division at CTEVT welcomed all the guests to the program. As the special guest of the program, Dr. Ramesh Chandra Poudel, Honorable Member of the National Planning Commission (NPC), said that the conference would be successful in finding ways to address four issues: (i) restructuring CTEVT with proper utilization of underutilized infrastructures, (ii) TVET linkage with the local context, (iii) Career counseling and linkage with the job market, (iv) an alumni network for fostering a feeling of bonding between the graduates and the institute. He also shared that the NPC had been formulating the 16th periodic plan and he expected that the conference could provide constructive inputs to be included in the plan for enhancing TVET in Nepal.

Speaking at the program, Er. Mahesh Bhattarai, For Member Secretary of CTEVT, highlighted the need for adopting the reform-based management rather than the transitional management. He clarified the concept of autonomy. He expressed that the TVET Act had become a must to address the federal structure. In addition, he emphasized the regular recruitment of employees to make CTEVT more functional in the days to come. He opined that enrolment at CTEVT institutes had not fundamentally decreased.

In the program, Mr. Shiva Kumar Sapkota, Joint Secretary of MoEST, raised some important issues for discussion in the conference. He presented that CTEVT should identify the ceiling for institute/program affiliation. He asked the participants to review whether the expansion had been done based on skill mapping. He highlighted that the enrolment rate was gradually decreasing and wished that the conference would identify the ways to address the underutilized capacity of CTEVT. He stressed the need for the protection of autonomy of CTEVT as the apex body in the TVET sector of Nepal.

Similarly, Ms. Rudra Devi Sharma, Chief District Officer of Kavre district, highlighted the importance of skills passport and requested the concerned authorities to make provisions for issuing such passports, as it had already been mentioned in the 15th periodic plan. She said that education should be technical and vocational, leading to employment, which could mitigate the situation of an import-driven and debt-laden economy of the country.

In his closing remarks, Mr. Khagendra Prasad Adhikari, the Vice Chairperson of CTEVT, said that the conference would provide a very useful platform to share ideas among principals and directors. He remarked that TVET Act was urgently needed, as it would facilitate the smooth functioning of CTEVT in the federal structure. The representatives from the trade unions at CTEVT, Forum for Health and Technical Science, and Federation of Private Technical Schools also expressed their remarks in the program. The guests of the program enjoyed the breakfast and service provided by the NBPI students of the Diploma in Hotel Management program.