A serious negligence has been observed in the curriculum development of the Nepali subject at the postgraduate level in Tribhuvan University.
As the curriculum was found to be influenced by the interests of a specific individual and group, TU has decided to revise the curriculum that was implemented only six months ago at the postgraduate level. Accusations were made that the then-head of the subject committee, along with others, adopted a biased and exclusionary approach while creating the Nepali subject curriculum, and verbatim copied the table of contents of their own books into the new curriculum.
As it revealed flaws in the curriculum development process, the Academic Council, headed by the Vice-Chancellor, and the Dean's Council immediately instructed the Central Department of Nepali to revise the curriculum a few days ago. The head of the Central Department of Nepali, Professor Dr. Krishna Neupane, stated that they would allow the current curriculum to complete one cycle and that the revised curriculum would be implemented for students newly enrolling in the first semester of the postgraduate program.
He said, "We have received instructions from the Academic Council and the Dean's Council to make this decision. We will implement the revised curriculum from the upcoming academic session." Although both councils had instructed the Central Department of Nepali to immediately implement the new curriculum, TU has stated that to avoid a public negative message, students who were already enrolled will be allowed to complete their studies under the old curriculum.
It was alleged that the new curriculum created for the postgraduate level was prejudiced and exclusionary, contrary to gender, ideological, and regional inclusion. Additionally, it was accused of being against democratic and inclusive principles, removing established texts from feminist literature, and eliminating the progressive literary movement, which is a major stream of Nepali literature. A complaint was filed with the Parliament's Education, Health, and Information Technology Committee with these allegations.
After a preliminary study of the allegations made in the complaint, the committee found them to be of a serious nature and sent a letter to TU. In the application submitted by the Women Writers Group to the committee, it was alleged that the table of contents of 'Theoretical Form of Diaspora (2079)' by the then-head of the Nepali Subject Committee, Professor Dr. Khagendra Prasad Luitel, was copied verbatim.
A study of the evidence submitted with the complaint shows that the topics included in Luitel's book and those included in the "Nepali Diaspora Literature 605.3" course at the postgraduate level are identical. Luitel is also the former head of the Central Department of Nepali at TU. The coordinator of the Women Writers Group, Reeta Khatri, accused that the table of contents of "Theoretical Form of Diaspora" was copied verbatim, and that the syllabus and curriculum were also unbalanced. Regarding the unilateralism in the curriculum, the Women Writers Group had previously drawn the attention of the university's Rector, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the head of the core Nepali subject committee.
According to the Women Writers Group, out of the 62 literary texts in the newly implemented curriculum, only two are by female writers, which amounts to only three percent of the total texts. Scholars of Nepali language, literature, and philosophy also protested, stating that the new curriculum was unbalanced, one-sided, and contrary to the principle of inclusion adopted by the constitution.
