Nepali Education: Skill Crisis or Study Culture Gap?

Reality of Nepali Education: Skill Crisis or Study Culture Gap?

The long queues of young people seen every day at the Ministry of Education’s Foreign Study Permit Section (NOC) and at the Department of Passports clearly reveal the wide gap in Nepal’s education and employment system. Every year, hundreds of thousands of students graduate from universities.

They hold certificates in their hands, but they do not possess skills that the market is willing to pay for. Employers complain, “We cannot find people who actually know how to work,” while students complain, “There are no jobs.”

What is the main reason behind this contradictory situation (paradox)? Do Nepali students truly lack skills, or do they lack study capacity or academic rigor? Or is this problem not only about students, but also the outcome of an education system that is decades old? This article attempts a factual analysis by exploring these questions in depth.

Current Context and Statistical Analysis

Every year, thousands of students graduate from Tribhuvan University and other universities across Nepal. According to data from the University Grants Commission (UGC), the number of students pursuing higher education in Nepal is increasing, but the question of quality is becoming more complicated.

Unemployment statistics

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Nepal Labour Force Survey, the rate of educated unemployment in Nepal is higher than the rate of unemployment among those without formal education. This indicates that our education system is not able to produce human resources that match market demand.

Foreign migration (brain drain)

The rush to go abroad immediately after completing Grade 12 reflects a lack of trust in Nepal’s higher education. Students often say that their main reason for going abroad is not only the quality of “education” there, but also the opportunity to “earn” and to learn “skills.”

Skill Shortage (Skill Gap) – A Serious Problem

Listening to the concerns of most employers makes it clear that Nepali students have “degrees” but lack the capacity to deliver results. We need to look at skills in two parts.

a) Technical Skills (Hard Skills)

Nepal’s curriculum is still heavily theoretical. For example, a management student may be able to solve accounting problems in college, but may not know how to prepare a balance sheet in real company software. Engineering students are often studying outdated technologies while the market demands skills in AI and machine learning.

Problem: The lack of functional laboratories, the formality that passes as internships, and the copy-paste culture in “project work” have all obstructed the development of technical skills.

b) Behavioural Skills (Soft Skills)

The largest gap is here. Nepali students often lack communication skills, problem-solving ability, teamwork, and leadership capacity.

Reason: Our classroom structure follows a “teacher speaks and students listen” (one-way communication) model. Students are rarely encouraged to ask questions, engage in debate, or give presentations. As a result, even students who score well in interviews on paper struggle to communicate in the workplace and end up failing there.

Study Capacity and “Rote Learning” (Rote Learning vs Critical Thinking)

Do Nepali students not study? They do study, but their study is not for “knowledge”; it is mainly to pass exams.

“Old is Gold” culture

The habit of studying only through guidebooks and past question papers (the “Old is Gold” approach) available in the market has limited students’ creativity. A pattern dominates where students study only in the last two months before exams and do not study seriously during the rest of the year. This cannot be called “study capacity”; it is merely a test of memory.

Lack of a research culture

Even at the master’s degree level, many students do not know how to carry out original research. When writing a thesis, buying work from the market or copying seniors’ work (plagiarism) is widespread. If students do not collect data themselves, do not analyse it, and do not draw conclusions on their own, their analytical ability does not develop.

Use of libraries

In college libraries, very few students read reference books, journals, or newspapers beyond basic textbooks. Restricting the scope of study strictly within the syllabus is a key sign of weak study capacity.

Who Is Responsible? Analysis of Systemic Failures

Students alone are not to blame for the lack of skills and weak study practices. This is a systemic failure with three main weak pillars.

Universities and curriculum

Most curricula in Nepal are 10–15 years old. In ten years, technology in the global market has advanced dramatically, yet we are still teaching the same old theories. A major flaw is that industry and employers (industry stakeholders) are not properly consulted when curricula are designed.

Teaching methods (pedagogy)

Teachers often use the same old teaching style. Instead of teaching students critical thinking, they consider dictating notes to be “good teaching.” As long as teachers do not train students to ask “Why did this happen?” their minds will not open up.

Social and family pressure

Nepali society tends to give more respect to certificates than to skills. A person with a bachelor’s degree, even if unemployed, is often valued more than a skilled plumber, electrician, or farmer. This social mindset discourages students from choosing technical and vocational education.

Misuse of Technology and Declining Attention Span

Although digital literacy has increased in recent years, it has not been used properly.

Digital addiction: Many students spend a lot of time on TikTok, Instagram, and gaming. The internet is seen more as a source of entertainment than as a learning resource.

Superficial knowledge: Students are often satisfied with short and shallow information from Google and YouTube. The habit of deep reading is disappearing. As a result, they miss the chance to develop genuine expertise in any subject.

Bridging the Gap (Solution-Focused Analysis)

Identifying the problem is not enough. What should be the way forward? Some concrete solutions are outlined below.

1. Skill-Based Curriculum

• When universities revise curricula, they should make it mandatory to allocate around 60 percent to theory and 40 percent to practical work.

• Internships and on-the-job training (OJT) should be compulsory within credit hours and strictly implemented.

• Soft skills should be integrated as a formal part of the curriculum.

2. Industry–Academia Collaboration

• Universities should produce the kind of human resources that industry actually needs. For this, there must be clear agreements and cooperation between colleges and corporate houses.

• Successful entrepreneurs and professionals should be invited to classrooms as guest lecturers.

3. Reforming the Assessment System

• A three-hour written exam alone cannot measure a student’s capability.

• Continuous assessment, project work, presentations, and research activities should become the main basis of evaluation.

4. Promoting Technical and Vocational Education (TVET)

• The scope of CTEVT (Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training) needs to be expanded.

• Public awareness is needed to increase social respect for skilled workers in areas such as mechanics, hospitality, and IT.

5. Changing Students’ Mindset

• Instead of saying, “The teacher did not teach me,” students should ask, “What did I search and learn on my own?” (self-learning).

• They should cultivate habits such as reading books beyond the syllabus, taking online courses (Coursera, Udemy, edX), and staying updated with global markets.

Global Practices and Nepal’s Position

If we look at the education systems of developed countries such as Finland, Germany, and Japan, skills are given more priority than rote knowledge.

Germany: Its dual education system requires students to spend some days of the week in college and some days working in factories. As a result, by the time they finish their education, they are fully competent in their field.

Nepal: In Nepal, many students only start thinking, “What work should I do now?” after finishing their degree. We need to adapt this “learning by doing” model from developed countries to Nepal’s context.

Detailed Analysis (Additional In-Depth Points for Completeness)

To add further depth to the main structure of the article above, the following topics can also be incorporated. Doing so would increase both the word count and the quality of the article.

a) Language Barrier

Much of higher education in Nepal is delivered in English. Students coming from government schools struggle more with translating English than with understanding the subject matter itself. Their core concepts do not become clear, and they are pushed towards rote memorisation. This tension between language skills and subject knowledge also weakens students’ overall capacity.

b) Politicization of Education

Political power-sharing inside universities disrupts the academic calendar. Exams are not held on time, and results are delayed, which creates frustration among students. When students lose trust in the system, they neither learn skills nor study with genuine focus. Their only goal becomes “escaping from here somehow.”

c) Economic Factors and Investment

Even when students want to learn skills, training centres are often expensive. After paying college fees, many parents cannot afford extra courses in coding, data analysis, or languages. The state needs to provide such training opportunities to students at concessional rates.

d) Lack of an Entrepreneurial Mindset

Our education system largely produces job seekers, not job creators. Students have a low appetite for taking risks. Study capacity is not only about reading books; it also includes the ability to identify market gaps and start new ventures.

Key Takeaways

• Problem: There are degrees but no skills; there is schooling but no research.

• Cause: Outdated curricula, rote learning habits, and lack of practical exposure.

• Solution: Skill-focused education, practical assessment systems, and students’ habit of self-learning.

• Future: Prosperity is possible only when education is linked to employment and life-oriented skills.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Nepali students do not lack inherent potential. There are many examples of Nepali students who, once abroad, have proved themselves in environments with strict rules and intense competition. This means the problem does not lie in their “genes,” but in the “scene” around them—that is, the environment.

If students lack skills, the reason is the absence of practical education. If they lack study capacity, the reason is an exam-oriented system. These two issues are closely interlinked. As long as education is viewed only as a “licence to get a job,” neither skill development nor deep learning will flourish.

What Nepal now needs is not just “degree holders” but “problem solvers.” For this, the state must undertake policy reforms, universities must reform curricula, and students must change their mindset. Only when education moves beyond the four walls of the classroom and connects with real life and the wider world will Nepali students be able to compete confidently in the global market.