Quality Improvement Initiatives and Outcomes: A Study of Public Schools in Ghodaghodi Municipality, Nepal

Abstract

This study aims to identify the challenges and gaps in providing quality education, examines Ghodaghodi municipality initiatives for improvement, assesses their impacts, and offers recommendations for further improvement. The study sampled 15 public schools out of 49, using stratified random sampling. Respondents included teachers, head teachers, parents, students, school management committee, municipal authorities, policymakers, teachers’ union leaders, and political leaders — 10 respondents from each school and 25 from municipal policy making sector altogether 175. Information was gathered through surveys, questionnaires, and document analysis using both primary and secondary sources. Since the last five years, municipal budget/ program has been focusing significantly on the areas of infrastructure, materials, ICT, and teacher management. Different levels of government invest on schools without long term plan and vision. So, the facilities at schools are not sufficient and proper. School mapping and student teacher ratio (STR) is not properly maintained. Teachers participated in professional development activities, but the effectiveness was rated as average. They identified a need for further development in subject matters, special needs education, and ICT skills. School supervision was found to be less effective, below the average. Teachers rated the overall school quality as average. Policymakers faced challenges such as budget constraints, employee indifference, and teacher politics affecting quality improvement programs. Based on the findings and conclusion, the research has recommended some improvements in the areas of restructuring schools, maintaining STR, infrastructural modernization, visionary academic leadership, teacher incentives, TPD opportunities, monitoring and evaluation, and the like.