More Kids Go to School… and Stay There!

The Nepalese education system has remarkably improved thanks to a program dedicated to keeping children – particularly girls and vulnerable kids – in school, by collecting and analyzing their performance to help them have better and fairer chances in life.

A total of 8.2 million children, of which half were girls, benefitted from the World Bank-supported School Sector Development Program (SSDP) that offers direct interventions to enhance learning.

The number of out-of-school children dropped by 6.76% nationwide, surpassing the 5.6% target during the SSDP period (216-2022). Between 2016 and 2022, the net enrollment rate (NER) increased both for basic and secondary education in Nepal’s 15 most disadvantaged districts. For basic education, NER went from 85.1% to 92.2%. As for secondary education, NER increased from 29.1% to 44.1%, an impressive improvement in a span of six years.