Enrolment situation and class-room facilities of journalism

The Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus under Tribhuvan University musters 'the largest concentration of students taking journalism as one of he major elective subjects at the two year proficiency level and three-year diploma level. A total of six classes in the day and evening shifts are operated. The total number of students enrolled at present stands at 600, out of which 200 students are studying in the diploma course. Each class takes in about 75 students in average which is still very high in terms with the physical facilities available. But the percentage of students crossing the final examination is in the average of 50 % (35 students are said to have passed this year)

The other privately managed Peoples Campus operates classes in Journalism at 2-year proficiency level only. The average enrolment figure is about 30 students a year for both the classes.

At the higher secondary (10+2) level, about 5 higher secondary schools are known to prescribe the course adopted by the Board of Higher Secondary Education, Sano Thimi. In 2001, a total of 80 students are stated to have participated in the final examination. Some of the schools are known to have discontinued the course for lack of students and qualified teachers or poor yield in terms of financial returns.

The situation at the high school level is not clear except that the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) has published a text book. The move should be welcomed as a positive step forward.

The Problem

The expansion of journalism education and training opportunities is, moreover, unbalanced and uneven in terms of mobilisation of resources and quality. Some of the major problems can be summed up as followed:

• Much of the learning opportunity is limited at two campuses in the capital city. The diploma level education is confined to one campus only out of 140 campuses spread all over the Kingdom.
• The prescription of courses at the Secondary and Higher Secondary levels has created new opportunities for learning journalism to students of outlying areas of the Kingdom. But expansion of the scope is constrained by the lack of qualified teachers and back-up resources including text books, libraries and basic learning materials.
• Journalism education as a discipline of study appears to be heading into confusion in the absence of clear national policy and resource allocation plans. This is the only development sector that is deprived of state funds and, subsequently, is obliged to look for external resources and support.
• The courses offered at the only campus in Kathrnandu lean heavily on theoretical study of print journalism due to lack of adequate funds. The lack of opportunity of studies at other campuses has led to over-crowding of classes, inadequate supervision and management.
• There are no specific criteria adopted for the selection of teachers in journalism. The criteria developed by the University for other subjects have not been applied in this case for several reasons. For the moment, the problem is not serious as the faculty is limited to one campus in Kathmandu which has, some how managed to assemble a bevy of staff of matchable standard. The issue needs to be resolved for the sake of uniformity and adoption by other campus also.

The study of Journalism is more vocational in application and hence distinct from other liberal arts subjects. Its study entails quite a substantive use of modern technology and financial resource.

Objectives

Any future plan for the promotion of the study of Journalism and Mass Communications shall have to take into account the following objectives:

• To promote the culture of free press, media pluralism and human rights through the development of standard education in journalism and mass communications at the higher education level.
• To support local initiatives in introducing study of journalism at other campuses outside the capital.
• To suggest means of meeting the scarcity of teachers in Journalism by organising condensed training courses for university teachers.
• To support initiatives for the production of well-graded text books in journalism in simple Nepali.
• To support the development of libraries and on-line networking facilities at the newly established departments.
• To promote inter-links with suitable partner institutions abroad and facilitate the exchange of teachers and students.