education

my corruption hypothesis – from Nepal

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disclaimer – I have no formal education in economics, business, or management. I could never be a good politician in my school, high school, or college – due to my ignorance and other really important stuff. The following (satires) are from my own perspective on politics from Nepal and similar developing nations in Asia. Any resemblance to any thing (person, donkeys, cats, trees, hammer, nails etc) else is pure co-incidental.

corruption = greed + opportunity

Following are some hypotheses regarding ‘corruption in nepal’. These are based on above general rule of corruption. Both greed and opportunity must be present for all the below hypotheses.

hypothesis 1.level of corruption is directly proportion to the socio-economic status of the corrupted

Those with greater need for richness corrupt more. Example.1. A person in need of urgent money, is unlikely to return the wallet full of cash s/he finds while walking alone. Example.2. A government official will take maximum amount of available bribe option, if he has greater need to support his family. Example.3. A politician or minister of the state is more likely to be more corrupted if s/he has had rough times growing up, with poor family background.

corollary one. corruption level increases if one has more family and relatives to feed. Example.4. Large family and joint family culture has more mouth to feed, and hence more money is needed.

hypothesis 2.corruption depends more on courage than one education and intelligence

corollary two. courage index for corruption increases on successive corruptions,

hypothesis 3.corruption increases with the level of hierarchy in any given office

hypothesis 4.not all corruptions are in a single system, but all systems can be corrupted

hypothesis 5.corruption is “necessary evil” for developing countries like nepal

Following are some more hypothesis, that I am not quite sure about. I have even less clarity on following hypotheses.

hypothesis 6.corruption has seasonal spikes before festivals and important state holidays

hypothesis 7.corruption is all or none phenomenon

hypothesis 8.corruption is not gender neutral

Above presented hypothesis could be explored. Invitation for anyone to proceed on these work. Also, since there are seven billion plus minds out in this world, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else already has these hypothesis under their name. But right now, I have no knowledge of similar work any where else till this point of time. My ignorance, due to the cold winter.

Top five corruption (present in Nepal – according to me)

5.  Corruption in Public/Private Tax payment

4. Corruption in Government Contracts

3. Corruption in Education

2. Corruption in Medicine and Health

1. Corruption in Law and Justice

P.S. – I will be updating this post, with more examples for each of my hypothesis.

P.S.II. – The follow up to this post was written on September 4, 2013 – and its about bribe/bribing. Link to the new post is here.

next post – Jan 8, 2013. 7.30am. NST – taking four day break.

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The Nepal Medical Education debacle

prashant

A recent medical licensing exam by Nepal Medical Council (NMC) had a huge number of recent medical graduate failing. NMC licensing exam is held twice every year, usually in the month of April and August/September, with around 700 medical graduates appearing every year.

Today’s Kantipur Daily (page 3) has a report stating that it’s mostly the students that study in foreign medical educational institute that lacks the credibility to pass. There were 180 multiple choice questions with 50% cut off point, back in April 2010 when I gave the exam. I do not recall any change in this pattern till date. Roughly a two third of failures get their medical education from China. The news fail to mention how many in exact fail.

As per my sources (which in this case is soundly solid) of the 650+ of the entrants who gave exam, there were around 200 medical graduates from China who failed. This is big when one considers that, the total applicants from Foreign Medical Institute were around 300.

It’s a cultural phenomenon, and every Nepali parents want their children to be a doctor. My parents had their fair share in my decision to pursue medicine. But at what cost? Medical education isn’t cheap, and while my family was able to afford it for me, seven years ago, the same is not true for today’s economy. My educational fee was economical to the prevailing time, but now it’s simply a burden in economy. With so many failures in elite education, is it right to follow this expensive culture? A six year bachelor degree education for one person, including food and shelter amounts approximately 3 million NRS.

Could the 200 graduates have opted for something else? Is educational counseling in Nepal doing its best for a diverse education, or are the parents this small nation ruining the diversity in education?

My next post will be on Medical education and medical institute in Nepal. How are they changing the society in both good and bad ethics .

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day care blues

prashant

my mother used to make us sleep every afternoon. when we woke up, there was a wild run, and then a lot of play. Swing, toys, dogs, and muds. By the time we got back, we had to take a bath, and then we watched Nepal TV.

This was the early 1990s. Now, most of the toddlers go to this ridiculously expensive institute called Day-Care. This in Kathmandu, is usually called Pre-School, and it’s a new fad among those with too much money and too little time to spend with their kids.

I mean, why would a toddler, need to learn ABC… and for the sake of twisted analogy and broken brains, why do you have tuition to a 3 year old? A nuisance beyond my imagination, and it bugs me, now and then. Plus, the mother to this child is a housemother, with her focus diverted to something very interesting, the Hindi Soap-Operas (available in all television near you)

I know person with their 26 month girl in a pre-school, and on top of that, this little girl also has a tuition to learn the alphabets. Pisses me off to realize that they are not the only parents here in Kathmandu doing that. The number of middle class parents, with working mom and dad are increasing, and by all means it’s a good thing. But the child so young, made to study so soon?? Doesn’t it count as Human Baby Right crisis or something?

On a brighter note – I recently heard that the price of admission on a day care center in developed countries in west is as much as 1000 USD. Gives me lot of good ideas on beginning a entrepreneurial venture to start this in Nepal.

P.S. – Where is the fun in studying. A child should taken seriously only after grade eight. I guess preparation for SLC in Nepal is a must. That’s when I was taken seriously, by my parents. For now, let the child play more.

 

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