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Design thinking is emerging as a popular student-centric teaching approach in Nepal. However, limited research has been done to understand how teachers feel about using these approaches in their classrooms. In-depth interviews with five design-thinking teachers revealed that cultural context plays a crucial role when new teaching approaches are used. The pedagogical and mindset shift required by teachers when exploring new teaching approaches directly affects their emotions, resulting in varying levels of joy or frustration. Critical reflection helps teachers manage their emotions, which is crucial in navigating challenges and emotional exhaustion.

This paper explores the engagement of parents with out-of-school children through communitybased participatory action research in a rural community in Nepal. This study addresses the connection gap between local communities and community schools, which has resulted in consequences such as inconsistent attendance among students and low educational expectations among parents. By investigating the processes of formulating an action plan by a parent-led action group and analysing its execution, the research aimed to understand how participatory action research can foster a stronger bond between community schools and parents, thereby enhancing parental involvement in children's education. The study draws on Mezirow's transformative learning theory, incorporating concepts from Habermas's public sphere and Freire's notion of conscientization. It specifically focuses on the action group's monthly meetings held over nine months and the collaborative outcomes that resulted. By emphasising targeted interventions, collaboration and a departure from deficit-focused approaches, the findings propose effective strategies for bridging the gap between community schools and rural communities in Nepal.

This study promoted professional learning and agency through a pragmatic formative intervention. Participants sought to change professional practices in classrooms in response to critical reflection on pedagogic practices and wider social concerns. Australian researchers collaborated with teachers and teacher educators from Nepal, informed by cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT). Change Laboratory methods identified a contradiction between heavy curriculum content and pedagogies that were regarded as educationally desirable and socially just. Participants developed eight principles to help teachers enact high-quality, inclusive pedagogies. One group linked this to the idea of MicroProjects, a solution for time-pressed teachers that could embody all eight principles. They worked with teachers in a nearby school to develop and implement MicroProjects across the Grade 1-12 curriculum. The paper traces a cycle of expansive learning actions, revealing how committed, activist research methods promoted teacher professional learning and agency in challenging contexts of the Global South, shifting from "what is" towards "what ought to be."

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze the context and concept of higher education for sustainable development (HESD) in Nepalese higher educational institutions (HEIs). Design/methodology/approach: The research gathers facts and information both from primary and secondary sources. Five open-ended questions were developed to interview university high-ranking officials, such as VCs, registrars, deans and the chief of the planning division. Findings: The inclusion of 17 sustainable development goals in the country's Fifteenth Plan, national policy documents, and the University Grants Commission-led higher education reform programme provides sufficient context for HESD. In the absence of HESD literacy and a persuasive strategy, university leadership is less active in lobbying for SDG 4.7 with the government and funding agencies, university faculties and trade unions. In fact, both insights and initiatives to conceptualize HESD are lacking. Research limitations/implications: This study's setting is distinct and the interpretation of the HESD concept is based on a small sample size. Thus, the generalization of its findings is intrinsically limited in the context of a country in the geographic region. However, the findings of this research provide practical insights to implement HESD in Nepalese HEIs. Practical implications: This study is intended to inform and prepare the Nepalese academic community, urging HEIs to implement HESD with a well-defined plan of action. It contributes to the literature by considering how the current context and concept of HESD suites to promote sustainability in Nepalese HEIs, transforming the traditional academic structure and making academic leaders aware that HESD is only a means to an end. Originality/value: This research is Nepal's first study of its type with a broad understanding of the context and concept of HESD. It also provides information for HEI leaders on how to initiate the HESD acceleration process.

Job Satisfaction (JS) and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) are both considered crucial in an organizational setting. The association between JS and OCB promotes school effectiveness on multiple levels. With this consideration, this research aimed to examine the relationship between them, following a post-positivist philosophy with a cross-sectional survey design. The data collected randomly from 345 respondents were analyzed using correlation and regression analysis and finally interpreted with the social capital and social exchange theory. The results confirmed the positive relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior, which further supports teachers' high job performances and work productivity. Likewise, the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior supports organizational commitment and effectiveness among teachers to promote better educational achievement in schools.

This paper explores the paradigm shift in using ICT tools while teaching mathematics remotely within the TPACK framework. Remote teaching is not only one of the primary modes of teaching and learning in the present context throughout the world but the transition from paper to the digital world, where mathematics teachers struggle to visualize the content concisely and clearly. This paper focuses on promoting pedagogy and learning and learner empowerment by emphasizing autonomy and engagement rather than technology. The ethos of this paper is all about encouraging the mathematics teachers to promote the students for quality engagement while teaching remotely. However, all the remotely leading ICT tools require some techniques and methodologies, thereby the mathematics teachers' skill, experience, and expertise. Those skills, experiences, and expertise will be developed by excelling in mathematics teachers' ICT tools. This paper shall be one of the guiding principles for mathematics teachers (but not limited to) while dealing with the mathematics content remotely and/or in any other mode.

This project examined academic reading in two contrasting English as a medium of instruction (EMI) university settings in Nepal and Sweden and the unique challenges facing students who are studying in a language other than their primary language. The motivation for the project was to explore the role of high-stakes testing in EMI contexts and the implications for the design of the "TOEFL iBT"® test. We employed a sequential mixed-methods approach to gather substantive and authentic qualitative data from stakeholders immersed in EMI settings. A small sample of students (Nepal = 19, Sweden = nine) were asked to complete reading logs over a period of 3 weeks so we could determine the types of texts and reading load associated with diverse EMI settings. Additionally, a larger cohort of students from each setting (Nepal = 69, Sweden = 60) completed questionnaires examining academic reading demands, reading skills, and practices. Students who completed the questionnaires also completed the reading section of the TOEFL iBT test. The same students also completed a "TOEFL"® family of tests suitability questionnaire so we could consider the suitability of the TOEFL iBT test for EMI contexts. Following test completion, a series of semistructured interviews (Nepal = 21, Sweden = 23) focused more closely on students' perspectives of reading demands in their academic contexts and the suitability of the reading section of the TOEFL iBT test to make claims about readiness to study in EMI contexts. Our findings revealed that different EMI contexts have different standards of high and low academic reading proficiency and that these differences may occur due to differences in educational experiences of the respective cohorts. The findings offer important new insights into academic reading and assessment in EMI contexts. Students in EMI contexts are sensitive to violations of expectations regarding test-taking experiences (face validity). The study has implications for the design of test tasks, which should consider local, contextual varieties of English.

COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the education system worldwide; consequently, education has been shifted to remote learning mode. There is still confusion regarding the effectiveness of remote learning compared to in-person education. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the perceived effectiveness and factors affecting emergency remote learning practices by administering online questionnaires. The study selected 254 participants (200 nursing students and 54 faculty) randomly from the five constituent nursing campuses of Tribhuvan University. A structured online questionnaire was developed in a google doc and an electronic link was shared to each of the participants. A self-generated excel sheet was transferred to SPSS Version 20 for the analysis. The result indicates that 46.2% of students used smartphones and almost all faculty used laptops for classes during COVID 19 pandemic. Students and faculty spent 11.45 ±8.43 and 4.26 ±2.05 hours respectively per week in class and >80% of respondents felt that the sessions were overloaded. PowerPoint slides, document sharing, chat, emails, and video conferences were the tools used for class. Most of them faced internet and electricity problems in between. Almost all respondents preferred live classes over recorded classes; 71% students and 59% of faculty were not interested in online classes. The remote learning method of teaching was less effective than face-to-face learning for 33.5% of students and 59.2% of faculty. To conclude, although there has been increased student-teacher communication, cooperation between students and active learning, the overall effectiveness of remote learning is decreased. Hence, there is a crucial need for a strategy to enhance effectiveness.

Even though the documentation on the effects of the pandemic on educators is being done, enough spaces have not been provided to the female educators working in higher education in Nepal. In this paper, I attempt to explore the journey of navigating my emotions as an educator in Nepal working from home and hope to contribute to the broader discussions on emotions and emotional expressions. The context of this self-study is my life as an educator working in higher education between 29 March 2020 to 29 March 2021. This paper focuses on exploring the question, 'How did the reflections of my emotions during the time of pandemic help me reconstruct my identity as an educator?'. Written as a retrospective reflection on vulnerability, courage, and empathy, self-reflective diary entries were used for data analysis. The paper shows the gendered implication on the emotional expression on me as a female faculty and how it impacted my identity as an educational leader.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought chaos in education across the world, including developing countries like Nepal. To respond to this educational disruption in this South Asian country, different educational plans and policies were formulated by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Government of Nepal. It is not known whether these policies were realistic and practicable, as there is no review of these documents to date. With this backdrop, this paper critically reviews the educational plans and policies that were developed to manage education during the crisis. It appraises the strengths of these policies in terms of their intent and practicalities of implementation in the given situation, and identifies gaps and challenges, and recommends some ways to realistically run the education system. The review reveals that these documents have several strengths, such as they plan to create data in terms of learners' access to resources, value self-learning and parent education, and suggest several alternative ways to resume school. Yet, there are some gaps and challenges, the identification of which can guide the effective delivery of education in Nepal in any kind of crisis period both at present and in future. This paper is expected to help policy makers to revisit the existing policies or guide them when they form future educational policies that are designed to manage education in any kinds of crisis. It is also deemed helpful for teacher educators, practitioners and other educational stakeholders to understand about the educational plans and policies formed to deal with crises.

The study aims at investigating basic level schoolteachers' awareness of their students' mathematics learning disability (MLD) in the context of Nepal. It is based on a mixed-method research design in that it combines both qualitative and quantitative approaches as appropriate. Using the stratified random sampling technique, 300 basic level mathematics teachers were selected from 150 basic level (grades 1-8) community and institutional schools representing the three significant ecological regions (the Mountain, the Hill, and the Terai) and demographic variables (gender, place of residence, and school type) from Province 1 of Nepal. A Mathematics Learning Disability Awareness Scale (MLDA-Scale), was developed and used to measure the basic level schoolteachers' awareness of their students' MLD. Besides, a semi-structured interview was conducted with the purposively selected basic level schoolteachers for the qualitative data. The basic level schoolteachers' awareness of MLD factor categories was calculated using descriptive statistics. Similarly, t-tests were conducted to examine the effects of the demographic variables. The qualitative data, however, were analyzed thematically. The results reveal that the majority of the basic level schoolteachers' knowledge toward their students' MLD was inadequate and that the demographic variables had no significant effects on the teachers' knowledge of their students' MLD. Finally, the study recommends developing the managerial practices regarding the MLD issue further.

This article explores my process of being emotionally literate, realizing my personal power through this process, and deciding to move ahead with my PhD to explore further my contribution to the flourishing of humanity. In this qualitative reflective self-study, I have used my detailed personal, professional, and academic reflective journal and audio-visual narratives that I kept over seven years as data to explore the process of learning. The article reveals my process of learning from my experiences as a confused Nepali girl to my experience of working as a journalist, to becoming an aspiring educational leader and a researcher. The results are discussed using a microscopic lens into my childhood together with an understanding of how social settings played a major role in my learning and how emotional intelligence played an instrumental role in deconstructing that and helped me understand myself better, urging me to explore further through my PhD research as an educational leader.

The number of reports and publications about exploratory action research (EAR) has been increasing in recent years; however, there is still a dearth of studies that examine its effectiveness for improving teaching and learning. This study explores Nepalese EFL teachers' perceptions of EAR, the ways they explored their classroom issues, and how they acted to improve their classroom practices through involvement in an online EAR training course for a year. The data collected from interviews and the teachers' written reports show that these teachers found EAR to be an effective approach to explore their classroom puzzles or problems and develop informed, context-sensitive strategies to solve these. The findings of this study are relevant for teachers, teacher educators, and education policymakers in providing insights into the value of EAR for bringing about changes in teaching and learning situations.

This study explores the situation of basic level community school boy and girl students' science and health learning through collaborative culture. Fifth, sixth and seventh-grade students (both boys and girls) took part in this study. As per the aim of this study, a set of questionnaire was developed and administered to the sampled students. Two hundred and fifty-eight students were selected from the sampled school using the census sampling technique. All the students were involved in collaborative learning activities such as building trust and open communication, establishing group interaction, respect diversity and sharing creative ideas based on the basic level science and health curriculum aiming at promoting inquiry learning through collaboration. A quantitative analysis involving the use of the Chi-square test at 0.05 level of significance, Likelihood ratio and Somer's symmetric was conducted to see the association between the variables. The results showed that science and health collaborative learning activities by gender were not associated significantly. There was no statistically significant difference ([alpha]=0.05) between the variables studied. The findings showed a weak association with gender and collaborative science and health learning activities in the classrooms.

The conscientiousness and motivator factors are the fundamental concerns of the organizational behavior among Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) school settings. Taking into account, this study intends to assess the level and examine the influences between conscientiousness and motivator factors among TVET teachers. For these purposes, this study employed the cross-sectional survey design and collected information via a questionnaire from 302 TVET teachers under different clusters. Then, the information was analyzed via descriptive and inferential (e.g. correlation and regression analysis) statistics and further discussed the obtained results by incorporating the social capital theory. This study explored the high conscientiousness and moderate level of motivator factors, and the positive correlation between them among teachers. Furthermore, this study confirms the relationship between conscientiousness and motivator factors as elucidated as in the theory of big five factors as its implication part in the context of TVET teachers in Nepal.

Online education has been adopted widely to address the educational chaos created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Reports on its constraints and challenges appear daily in the global media. However, accounts of teachers' and students' experiences of this abrupt shift in pedagogical modality are conspicuously absent in the available literature. This article reports the findings of a study that explored teachers' and students' experiences of online education during the pandemic in the context of higher education in Bangladesh and Nepal. The online survey with 147 students and 76 teachers and interviews with a sub-sample of 17 participants indicate that they adapt the action potentials of the digital artifacts to local contexts and use them in the best possible ways to facilitate their communication and enhance student learning in difficult circumstances. The major challenges and constraints they experience in transitioning to online education include poor network, lack of digital skills, lack of technological support from institutions among others. The study findings indicate some pressing policy, pedagogical and research implications, which are discussed in the final section.

Nepalese Female Community Health Volunteers' (FCHVs) knowledge on social attention and communication development and the early signs of autism was evaluated before, immediately after, and 12-months following training on typical and atypical social-communicative development in infants/toddlers, early signs of autism, and monitoring of key "markers" of autism using Social Attention and Communication Surveillance. FCHVs (N = 60) significantly improved their knowledge about autism and reported increased perceived confidence in monitoring and referring young children at high likelihood of autism following training, which was sustained one year later. FCHVs also reported a positive impact of training on their work. These findings indicate the effectiveness of training in improving FCHVs' knowledge and perceived confidence to monitor and refer young children at high likelihood of autism.

The High Impact Tourism Training (HITT) was a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme implemented by the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV). It targeted informal workers from the tourism sector, notably women and youth, unskilled and semi-skilled workers in seven countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia: among them, Nepal. Through innovative solutions, the programme aimed to provide vocational training in tourism related activities to workers from the informal sector, women and youths - who usually had limited access to formal education - in order to increase their employability and income. After drawing the contours of the TVET sector and listing the main challenges to education in Nepal, the article shows how the HITT initiative chose to address them. Based on quantitative and qualitative evidence, we show that the strategy of intervention rests principally on two pillars: the introduction of active learning methods, and close collaboration with the private sector at every stage of the process, from the analysis of the sector and needs, to the design of the training, to the implementation. The article further dwells on the potentialities, limits and replicability of the HITT programme in Nepal.

An adapted version of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence--Third Edition (WPPSI-III) was administered to assess cognitive functioning among 1,253 5-year-old children from the Malnutrition and Enteric Disease (MAL-ED) study--an international, multisite study investigating multiple aspects of child development. In this study, the factor structure and invariance of the WPPSI-III were examined across seven international research sites located in Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal, Pakistan, South Africa, and Tanzania. Using a multiple indicator multiple cause (MIMIC) modeling approach, the findings supported the validity of a fluid reasoning dimension (comprised of block design, matrix reasoning, and picture completion subscales) across each of the seven sites, although the scores were noninvariant. Accordingly, these scores are recommended for research purposes and understanding relationships between variables but not for mean comparisons or clinical purposes.

Recently, the role of leadership has been considered as one of the crucial factors for the success of any organization. However, what constitutes the effective leaders and what is the status of leaderships is still a subject of study. Hence, this research article is carried out with a mixed method. Based on the evaluation of 7 leadership styles, Bass and Avolio (1994)'s "5Is" behaviors, 49 traits, and 28 affecting elements for the development of police officers in Nepal, this study has used a survey questionnaire from 1111(N) and in-depth interview from 21(N) respondents from all the districts of Nepal. The findings of the study display that people are expecting a lot from police administration for adaptation of transformational leadership followed by participative/democratic, authentic and strategic models which were rated with highest ratings respectively. The trait status does not seem sound since the negative traits seem dominant with highest rating-"moderately to mostly", whereas the majority of positive traits are rated with "a little to moderately". Moreover, the transformational leadership behaviour is dealt with "a little to moderately", which needs to be improved.

Peace, security, rule of law, and sustainable development are driving principles in a democratic notion of developing country like Nepal. "3Is": Injustice, Insecurity and Imbalance have been reflecting in the post transitional Nepal. The study came with the objectives of investigating the peoples' perceptions on the adaptation of policing, the challenges and expectation. The information was collected from 1111(N) respondents all over the country from different ways of life, applying mixed method questionnaire survey and interview. The research show the need of system based policing like "intelligence-led"; "police public partnership," and "proactive" respectively. The influence of politicization, political instability, external influence, lack of role model leadership, open border, rampant corruption, nepotism-favoritism, lack of research are the major challenges in the security organizations. Furthermore, most educated and high profile personalities have less interest to encourage their generation in police services. People are expecting proficient and accountable police forces.

The current study investigated the age of diagnosis (AoD) of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Nepal by using de-identified data on 246 children with a diagnosis of ASD registered at AutismCare Nepal Society from 2010 to 2015. The mean AoD in children was 58 months (range 14-187 months). Majority of children were male (76%), lived in the Kathmandu valley (75%), and were from upper caste groups (62%). The mean diagnostic age of ASD in Nepal is much later than the age at which a reliable diagnosis is possible, indicating the need to reduce the gap between the age at which it is possible to diagnose ASD, and the average age at which ASD is currently diagnosed.

Parental knowledge on child development is important for maximal developmental potential. This study was conducted to assess mothers' knowledge on child development in Nepal. The Caregivers Knowledge of Child Development Inventory (CKCDI) was used to interview mothers. Total of 1272 mothers were interviewed. Out of the total CKCDI score of 40, mean score (SD) obtained by mothers was 20 (4.8). Mothers' knowledge on the developmental milestone composite was better than stimulation composite with scores of 11.14 (3.09) and 8.9 (3.17), respectively (p < 0.005). Few mothers (38%) identified the correct ages of developmental milestones. Although most of the mothers knew about teaching their children to count or name colors, few knew when to start to read with children. With low level of knowledge on child development among Nepalese mothers, early childhood development programmes should be considered integrated with other health care programmes targeting young children and families.

Community-based school governance has been promoted as a popular policy for decentralisation of education around the world. Within this policy, schools are expected to create institutional spaces such as School Management Committees with an assumption of reciprocal relation between school and community. This article questions the simplistic assumption through an ethnographic study of community-school relationship in Nepal. While these relationships may conflict with the kind of reciprocity assumed in school governance policies, we argue that this disjunctured reciprocity, firstly, reflects the gap between policy blueprints and action, and, secondly, reveals the competing logics of community-school relations which remain unacknowledged.

Machinima, screencast animated videos made in a virtual world, are still not a very well-known phenomenon, and there has been little reseach in relation to their use as a teaching material in English language classrooms. This study aimed to investigate the potential for and challenges in using machinima in the pre-intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. Bespoke machinima were created for three classes in Nepal, and the lessons using them were observed. Two teachers and four students were given semi-structued interviews, and 20 students were asked to write a reflective note on their impression of the use of machinima. The findings of the study indicate that machinima are distinct from other materials in that they can be contextualized to address the needs, interests, and values of the learners. Student engagement is thus found to have been significantly higher.

This paper explores the engagement of parents with out-of-school children through community-based participatory action research in a rural community in Nepal. This study addresses the connection gap between local communities and community schools, which has resulted in consequences such as inconsistent attendance among students and low educational expectations among parents. By investigating the processes of formulating an action plan by a parent-led action group and analysing its execution, the research aimed to understand how participatory action research can foster a stronger bond between community schools and parents, thereby enhancing parental involvement in children's education. The study draws on Mezirow's transformative learning theory, incorporating concepts from Habermas's public sphere and Freire's notion of conscientization. It specifically focuses on the action group's monthly meetings held over nine months and the collaborative outcomes that resulted. By emphasising targeted interventions, collaboration and a departure from deficit-focused approaches, the findings propose effective strategies for bridging the gap between community schools and rural communities in Nepal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autism is a global phenomenon. Yet, there is a dearth of knowledge of how it is understood and its impact in low-income countries. We examined parents' and professionals' understanding of autism in one low-income country, Nepal. We conducted focus groups and semi-structured interviews with parents of autistic and non-autistic children and education and health professionals from urban and rural settings (n = 106), asking questions about typical and atypical development and presenting vignettes of children to prompt discussion. Overall, parents of typically developing children and professionals had little explicit awareness of autism. They did, however, use some distinctive terms to describe children with autism from children with other developmental conditions. Furthermore, most participants felt that environmental factors, including in-utero stressors and birth complications, parenting style and home or school environment were key causes of atypical child development and further called for greater efforts to raise awareness and build community capacity to address autism. This is the first study to show the striking lack of awareness of autism by parents and professionals alike. These results have important implications for future work in Nepal aiming both to estimate the prevalence of autism and to enhance support available for autistic children and their families.

The Bayley's Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-Third Edition (Bayley-III) were used to measure the development of 24-month-old children (N = 1,452) in the Interactions of Malnutrition and Enteric Infections: Consequences for Child Health and Development (MAL-ED) study (an international, multisite study on many aspects of child development). This study examined the factor structure and measurement equivalence/invariance of Bayley-III scores across 7 international research sites located in Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, and South Africa. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to identify the factor structure of Bayley-III scores. Subsequently, reliability analyses and item response theory analyses were applied, and invariance was examined using multiple-indicator, multiple-cause modeling. The findings supported the validity, but not invariance, of Bayley-III language scores at all seven sites and of the cognitive and motor scores at six sites. These findings provide support for the use of scores for research purposes, but mean comparison between sites is not recommended. Impact and Implications: In measurement, validity refers to the extent to which we are measuring what we intend to measure and the appropriateness of inferences we make based on our measurements. The validity of scores from measures often varies across cultures, and this study examined the validity of a measure of child development among children from sites in seven low- and middle-income countries. The findings indicate that the majority of the scores are valid for research, but measurement differences are evident such that it is not appropriate to compare mean scores across sites. [Co-written with the MAL-ED Network Investigators.]

Few data exist on the prevalence of autism in low-income countries. We translated, adapted and tested the acceptability of a Nepali-language version of a screening tool for autism (Autism Quotient-10). Using this tool, we estimated autism prevalence in 4098 rural Nepali children aged 9-13 years. Fourteen children scored > 6 out of 10, indicative of elevated autistic symptomatology, of which 13 also screened positive for disability. If the AQ-10 screening tool is as sensitive and specific in the Nepali population as it is in the UK, this would yield an estimated true prevalence of 3 in 1000 (95% confidence interval 2-5 in 1000). Future research is required to validate this tool through in-depth assessments of high-scoring children.

There has been a steady interest in investigating the validity of language tests in the last decades. Despite numerous studies on construct validity in language testing, there are not many studies examining the construct validity of a reading test. This paper reports on a study that explored the construct validity of the English reading test in the Nepalese school leaving examination. Eight students were asked to take the test and think-aloud, followed by retrospective interviews. Additionally, seven experts were asked to make judgments regarding the skills tested by the test. The findings provide grounded insights into students' response behaviors prompted by the reading tasks, and indicate some threats to the construct validity of the test. Additionally, the study reports a low level of agreement among the experts, and a big gap between the skills used by the students and the skills that the experts thought were being examined by the test.

The main intent of inclusive education is to include diversity in terms of access to education. Hence, inclusive education is of tremendous significance to a country like Nepal, which has so much diversity. However, the strategies formulated by the inclusive education policies in Nepal still follow a narrow definition of inclusive education, though the policies are progressive. Does inclusive education mean only a scheme for disabled learners? Through a desk review of the policies after 2000 related to inclusive education, this paper argues that the smooth transition to inclusion in education has been challenging. The paper argues that despite policy provisions, Nepal has not been able to actualize inclusion in education because its strategies and actions are not directed toward inclusion. This situation is there mainly because of the lack of uniform understanding of inclusive education, and its present practice will lead towards segregation but not towards integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shows how community libraries can create and support literate environments, which are essential for building and sustaining literacy skills in local communities. The paper begins with a subject analysis reviewing available background materials and literature on the topic. Next, relevant issues are considered based on experiences and impact evaluations from specific community libraries, namely Nepal's Rural Education and Development (READ) Centres. The findings indicate that since their foundation in 1991, READ Centres have evolved from traditional libraries to effective community development centres with a strong focus on social empowerment, economic development and lifelong learning, based on a library concept which is needs-based, community-owned and sustainable.

Awareness and knowledge about autism is almost non-existent in Nepal. Children who eventually get the diagnosis often miss their opportunity for early intervention. The current study shows that medical help was seeked at mean age of 27.9 + 14.5 months and most of them were for delayed language and the first preference for parents were pediatricians. The mean age of diagnosis of autism was 55.6 months. The time length between help seeking to diagnosis was 29.4 months with longest time lag of 13 years. Delay in recognition of symptoms, delay in health seeking and lack of awareness even in treating physicians might be the reason for advanced age at diagnosis of autism in Nepal.

We find the informal sector of Nepal, which employs nearly 60% of non-agricultural labour force, to have underperformed between the period 1995/96 and 2010/11. We locate a large performance gap between the 'traditional/non-capitalist' segment, comprising family-based household enterprises that occupy a majority portion of informal sector, and the 'modern/capitalist' segment employing wage labour, which shows heterogeneity existent within the informal sector. We find that, by employing an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression of independently pooled cross sections of enterprises over three rounds of Nepal Living Standard Survey (NLSS 1995/96, NLSS 2003/04, and NLSS 2010/11), the performance gap between the traditional/non-capitalist enterprises and the modern/capitalist enterprises did not lessen over time indicating a persistent dualism within the sector. We further explore the rural-urban dimension of informal sector, through the use of a regression-based decomposition exercise, to find that while the rural-urban differential in informal sector shrunk between the period 1995/96 and 2010/11, it is attributed to the underperformance of urban firms and the stagnancy of rural firms over time. The dismal performance of informal sector, particularly the existence of a large (non-declining) proportion of traditional/non-capitalist segment at a meagre income level, raises question on the possibility of transformation in the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The study explores the perceptions of head teachers about time spent on teaching and learning in their schools. Specifically, the study investigates the headteachers' perceptions of teacher-spent time (TST) in teaching and its implementation status in school-level education in Nepal. Design/Methodology/Approach: It is based on the qualitative descriptive survey research design. It was carried out with ten community school headteachers of the Ilam district as the sample. Six of them belonged to three rural municipal areas, and four were from two municipal areas. The sample for the study was drawn purposively. A semi-structured interview was used to collect the data from the headteachers as the respondents, and the data was analyzed by applying the thematic analysis technique under five themes. Findings: The result indicates that the disparity among the schools in terms of physical conditions and resources resulted in workload management problems, challenges with TST implementation, and weak supervision. Conclusion: It was concluded that the promotion of teacher awareness about their profession was necessary for effective TST implementation and the overall development of quality education. Limitations and Implications: The study uses only one variable-headteachers' perceptions of TST and a small sample that may affect the generalizability of the result. So, it is suggested that a further study be conducted covering various dimensions of TST. Practical Implications: Despite these limitations, the study has a number of practical implications for the Nepalese education policy and practice as well as other contexts with a comparable set of circumstances. These include improving school leadership, enhancing teacher preparation, and addressing resource shortages to improve student learning outcomes. Contribution to Literature: The study can contribute to the literature on education by highlighting the perspectives of head teachers and providing insights into effective strategies for optimizing the amount of time spent on teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to develop and test the feasibility of conducting a sexual health intervention for women in Nepal, a country with high political and economic instability and strong patriarchal systems. Of the 88 women enrolled, 100% retention was obtained over three sessions, and 85% completed a 1-month follow-up. Recruitment was so effective that some women were placed on a waitlist. All participants embraced the content and actively engaged in the intervention. Baseline results indicate HIV knowledge of the sample of educated women was low, and they did not often speak to other women about sex. Low knowledge about HIV and being comfortable discussing sex were associated with less frequent communication with others about sex. This study identified a great need for sexual health programs for women in Nepal, and we were able to effectively develop and implement an intervention to target this need.

This study attempts to develop a reliable, practical, and efficient process for developing online and distance courses. The study aims to develop e-learning online and distance education courses. ICT and e-Research course development processes have shown significant learning opportunities and outcomes. A substitute for raising these opportunities is the need for innovative research in education while implementing online and distance modes of learning and teaching. Subscribing research and development research methodology, the study aims to produce e-learning instructional materials using a three-stage development model. The course, along with the learning strategy, the learning tools, the assessment tools, and other components, are designed and developed using the Plomp model, a development research model. The research participants were forty-two 2021 Winter Batch MPhil in Educational Studies students and nine lecturers at Nepal Open University (NOU), Nepal. The descriptive analysis uses data analysis to explain the online course's validity, applicability, and effectiveness. Experimental research design was developed using the one-group pre-test posttest design methodology. The most important results are results of preliminary analysis, validity: average material validation is 0.885; average media validation is 0.885 and practicality: more than 71% (very practical). This article proposes a more comprehensive framework to design, develop, and implement online and distance courses in e-learning systems in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the elevated radiation exposure of patients and personnel, the catheterization laboratory is particularly in need of optimal levels of radiation protection and safety protocols. Developing safe radiation procedures improves the safety of patients and personnel. This study aims to determine the necessary modifications to enhance the quality of care and implement safety and radiation protection measures for catheterization laboratories throughout Nepal. An online descriptive cross-sectional survey was emailed to all catheterization laboratory of Nepal. The questionnaire consisted of 32 questions focusing on radiation protection and safety in the catheterization laboratory. Results were analyzed using Microsoft Excel, and frequencies and percentages were calculated and summarized. Survey findings demonstrated a 70.42% adopted radiation protection and safety among 28 catheterization laboratory across Nepal. 32.1% respondents were unaware of the Radio-absorbent patient drapes, and 50% reported systematically using real-time radiation dose monitoring. Most of the survey respondents (92.9%) had updated emergency crash cart and 21.4% don't have clearly apparent radiation hazard indicator. 78.6% catheterization laboratory segregated waste according to National HealthCare Waste Management Standard Operating Procedure. 56.4% lacked personnel radiation dose monitoring devices. All participants are oriented for six steps of handwashing, wearing gloves, donning and doffing of Personal Protective Equipment; despite 78.6% only received at least Basic Life Support training. Physicians, Radiographers, Physicists, Nurses and hospital administration should work together to establish a radiation protection and safety program for the catheterization laboratory. The findings will be utilized to pinpoint shortcomings and create strategies for enhancing radiation protection and safety in catheterization labs across Nepal. Key stakeholders, including the Nepal Radiological Society, will need to continue collaborating with other organizations in order to enhance patient care and better promote, integrate, and drive resourcing of radiation protection and safety at all catheterization laboratories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image quality is the clarity of structures in an image and is essential for providing an accurate diagnosis. We aim to evaluate the image quality in the 1.5 Tesla MRI Scanner. Geometric distortion, signal-to-noise ratio, percentage intensity uniformity and ghosting are evaluated. A 40 cm diameter cylindrical electroclinical correlation (ECC) performance phantom was scanned in T2W spin-echo pulse sequence at the coronal plane by using 32 phased-array coils in a 1.5 Tesla Philips Achieva MRI imager, Department of Radiology & Imaging, National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS), Kathmandu in June 2019. Four parameters, namely Geometric distortion (GD), Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), percentage intensity uniformity (PIU) and ghosting-to-signal ratio (GSR) were measured in RadiAnt DICOM viewer. Data were analyzed using SPSS Statistics software, version 27.0. The calculated values of these parameters were compared with standard references. The range of GD was 0 - 3.9 mm. SNR was 113.96 for small ROI and 99.71 for large ROI. The PIU was 97.73% and 72.33% for small ROI and large ROI respectively. The GSR was 0.0011 for small ROI and 0.0039 for large ROI respectively. The image quality assurance was over the limit for GD, PIU (large ROI). The SNR and GSR were adequate. Regular QA tests are required to obtain optimal image quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ureteric calculi are essentially a kidney calculus that has passed into the ureter. We aim to determine the common site of ureteric calculi using computed tomography (CT) scan. Patients referred to CT department for non-contrast CT scan of kidney, ureter and bladder (KUB) were scanned from July to September 2018 in 16 slices MX CT scanner, Philips Medical System. Patients identified with ureteric calculi and age ≥16 years were included in the study. The data were analyzed using SPSS statistics version 27.0. Chi Square test (x2) test was applied to determine the association between ureteric calculi and demographic variables. Binary logistic regression (BLR) analysis was performed. Hosmer and Lemeshow test were performed before BLR modelling. Multicollinearity was calculated for demographic variables by using Pearson's Chi-square test for independence. 76 patients, 58 male and 18 female, mean age 39.67‡15.69, range 18 to 82 were included in the study. Calculi were identified in both ureters, 53.9% in right ureter and 46.1% in left ureter respectively. 60.5% of calculi were noted at pelvic-ureteric junction (PUJ) and 39.5% at vesico-ureteric junction (VUJ). x2 test showed the location of ureteric calculi were independent of both gender and age groups, p>0.05. Both gender and age groups did not add significantly to the BLR model, p>0.05. Females were 2.63 times more likely to have VUJ calculi than males. Age groups <30 and 30-60 years were 3.52 and 2.15 times more likely to have VUJ calculi than >60 years age group. Ureteric calculi are a major health concern in Nepal and is most common in right PUJ. Adequate precaution and preventive measures should be adopted as soon as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equitable access to quality health services is a fundamental right of every citizen. As access to quality health services is an important domain of universal health coverage. Clinical audit is a crucial tool for maintaining a high standard of care in the hospital. This study aims to highlight the discrepancies between actual practice and standard in order to identify the changes needed to improve the quality of care and to implement the changes of Radiology department in central government hospital of Nepal. A descriptive, cross-sectional survey encompassing central government hospital was conducted. A structured online questionnaire comprising 41 questions was employed and classified into 2 sections, encompassing demographic data and clinical audit tool. Microsoft Excel and SPSS V.25 were used to analyze the data, and frequencies were computed. Of the 31 central government hospitals in Nepal, 19 (61.3%) are located in Bagmati province. Six of the thirty-one hospital radiography staff members have completed at least BLS or ACLS training. There is no biomedical engineering support at 8 Hospital. Hospitals that have adopted RIS or PACS are 41.9%. There are no personnel radiation dose monitoring devices in 22 out of 31 hospitals. Only six hospitals provide staff members with recurring radiation protection training. In the imaging sector, 74.2% of hospitals have an obvious radiation hazard warning for expectant moms. This study highlights the relatively medium level of clinical audit in central government hospital of Nepal. However, the identified lack of knowledge pertaining to the clinical audit emphasizes the need for further education and training in this area. To address this gap, we recommend the establishment of comprehensive orientation of clinical audit for radiology professionals. Encouraging equitable and high-quality healthcare will aid in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through clinical audit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telecommunication industry is one of the major sectors which is at higher risk of losing revenue due to customer churn. Thus, when churn management is done effectively, it provides a competitive advantage to the telecom company over its competitors by increasing customer retention rate. Although many machine learning algorithms exist today, few algorithms are effective to consider the imbalanced nature of the telecommunication's dataset. The real telecommunication data also varies differently from the publicly available dataset and hence the effectiveness of machine learning algorithms may vary differently. Therefore, this research has tried to bridge this gap by undertaking native dataset of one of the major Telecommunications Industry of Nepal and applying XGBoost on this dataset which contains 52332 records of customers, out of which 46204 are non-churned and 6128 are churned customers. The accuracy and f1-score obtained on the native dataset are 97% and 88% respectively. This research work has also undertaken publicly available dataset that contains 3333 subscribers for the purpose of comparison with previous researches and obtained an improved accuracy and f1-score of 96.25% and 86.34% respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of GeoGebra in teaching geometric transformations was investigated in this study. GeoGebra is a math software available in over 100 plus languages, both online and offline. GeoGebra is a useful application to improve and enrich mathematics teaching and learning by allowing students to visualize mathematical concepts, which is extremely useful for mathematical experiments and discoveries at all educational levels, from elementary school to university. The theoretical referents used in this article are cognitive learning theory and Vygotsky's social learning theory. Twenty students (twelve boys and eight girls) in grade IX from a private school in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, were taught mathematics using a variety of specific instances of transformation highlighted in this study, including reflection, rotation, translation, and dilation. This research used a qualitative research method called a teaching experiment to examine the use of GeoGebra in eleven episodes. Students were aided in visualizing abstract concepts of change by using relevant images, photos, and animations of GeoGebra-created objects. The findings of a classroom experiment are GeoGebra is an easy-to-use application, GeoGebra allows for discovery learning, GeoGebra encourages collaborative learning, and GeoGebra to visualize geometric transformations. Likewise, GeoGebra aids in the teaching and comprehension of abstract transformation concepts. These findings show how students can develop into active knowledge builders when GeoGebra is used in mathematics classes. They also communicate with one another, keep track of the change process, and respect their instructors' authority in such classes. It is an important instructional tool that supports the educational system's transition from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered approach by complementing the traditional lecture method of teaching mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work assesses the degree of satisfaction tourists receive as final recipients in a tourism destination based on the fact that satisfied tourists can make a significant contribution to the growth and continuous improvement of a tourism business. The work considers Pokhara, the tourism capital of Nepal as a prefecture of study. A stratified sampling methodology with open-ended survey questions is used as a primary source of data for a sample size of 1019 for both international and domestic tourists. The data collected through a survey is processed using a data mining tool to perform multi-dimensional analysis to discover information patterns and visualize clusters. Further, supervised machine learning algorithms, kNN, Decision tree, Support vector machine, Random forest, Neural network, Naïve Bayes, and Gradient boost are used to develop models for training and prediction purposes for the survey data. To find the best model for prediction purposes, different performance matrices are used to evaluate a model for performance, accuracy, and robustness. The best model is used in constructing a learning-enabled model for predicting tourists as satisfied, neutral, and unsatisfied visitors. This work is very important for tourism business personnel, government agencies, and tourism stakeholders to find information on tourist satisfaction and factors that influence it. Though this work was carried out for Pokhara city of Nepal, the study is equally relevant to any other tourism destination of similar nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a time of rapid modernization in Nepal, most Nepalese men are engaging in more risky sexual health behaviours. As most of these Nepali men have little factual information or guidance about sexual health or access to health care, it is imperative to explore how and if there remain particular barriers to sexual health service use for sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention, screening and treatment. Our study explored the perspectives of healthcare providers and Nepalese men as service users who access public hospital in Nepal, regarding the barriers to STI service use. 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted through purposive sampling for healthcare service providers while Nepali male service users between age 25–49 years were interviewed following a convenience sampling. Qualitative thematic analysis, separately for providers and service users was conducted in order to identify varying perspectives regarding barriers to STI service use. The main barriers by healthcare providers include low health literacy, poor user-provider interaction, overcrowding in service delivery, and in maintaining confidentiality. Service users mentioned about poor sexual health knowledge and confidentiality remain a concern, while both groups mentioned about fear of infection with STI as a facilitator factor in availing sexual health service screening and treatment. Our data identify complexities of delivering sexual health services to Nepali men and barriers to service use. The data suggest that there is a need for greater education regarding STIs and related services, and also consideration of the various cultural factors that influence service use in Nepal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nepal is a sensitive and disaster-prone country where safety and security risk are of high concern for travelers. Digital technologies can play a vital role in addressing safety and security issues in the country. This research work proposes a Digital tourism security system design for addressing the safety and security issues in tourism industry of Nepal. The study uses Design science research methodology to identify artifacts, interactions, information flow and dependencies between them which are then mapped with existing prevalent technology to provide design solutions. Data is obtained from interview of tourist and experts as a primary source and technical documents/draft, software documentations, surveys as secondary source. Generalized information model, Use cases model, Network architecture model, Layered taxonomy model and Digital tourism technology reference model are the outcomes of the study. The work is very important as it talks specifically about implementation and integration of digital technologies in tourism security governance at federal, provincial, municipal and rural level. The research supplements as a knowledge document for design and implementation of digital tourism security system in practice. As there is very less work on digital systems in tourism security of Nepal, this work is a pioneer and first of its kind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]