The social work education in Nepal is nascent, immature and at huge risk of identity crisis. Looking back at the history of social work development in Nepal, the Social Work Institution (SWI) was established in 1987 under the auspices of the Nepal Jesuit Society. The institution was established with the mission to create a just society by producing social mobilizers and started servicing in a charity and welfare model; the Missionary approach. The social work profession in academic institution began in Nepal with the establishment of independent department of Social Work in St. Xavier’s College, with affiliation to Kathmandu University. The college started the social work program in Nepal in 1996 as a pure three years academic course in ‘Bachelors of Arts in Social Work’. Dr. Nikku in his paper ‘Building Social Work Education and the profession in a Transition Country: Case of Nepal’ argues that the era of late 1990s and early 2000s was a magnificent phase for social work as a profession, and that the profession is being heard of; yet the institutionalization of the subject and the reorganization of identity is not achieved as the expected.
By then the course of social work had been well known among the social and developmental organizations from NGOs to CBOs to INGOs to GOs. Yet more social work organizations were needed to produce trained social workers. Then in late 2000s the era of mushrooming of social work institutions in Nepal started. Number of colleges started including social work as a part of bachelors study and developed course curriculum consisting Bachelors of Arts with Social Work as a major. At present I see three different patterns of Social Work academic courses in Nepal; BA in Social Work, BSW (Bachelor in Social Work) and Bachelor of Arts with Social Work major.
In contemporary time the social work profession in Nepal is being corrupted by some of the educational institutions and the involved academicians because of their motive for seeing this profession as an easy income generating means. Looking back into the history of social work institutions in Nepal from 1996 to 2004, in a eight year long period there was just one social work institution offering social work program i.e. St. Xavier’s College. Since 2005, four new colleges affiliated to Purbanchal University and Tribhuwan University have started offering social work program. Among them Kadambari Memorial College affiliated to Purbanchal University had started a three year semester based social work program in the form of a BSW (Bachelor of Social Work) while three colleges affiliated to Tribhuwan University have also started offering social work as one of the major subjects under the three year B.A. Program. In 2006 the first Masters in Social Work program was also approved by the Purbanchal University and is being offered currently by St. Xavier’s College. In addition, students can now opt for distance courses in social work through the Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) overseas partner institution located in Kathmandu. On the other side since 2006 to 2013/14, in span of seven-eight years, more than ninety new colleges have been added in social work academicism and have started offering Bachelors of Arts with social work major from Tribhuwan University. The brisk mushrooming of social work institutions in Nepal centric to Kathmandu valley definitely gives enough space to doubt its professional growth and the quality of the output. At present, I see three major threats to social work education in Nepal; lack of social work knowledge as a profession and insufficient qualified human resource, Business minded academic institutions, and Lack of monitoring and slack control mechanisms from Universities.
First, lack of Social Work knowledge as a profession and deficient of sound human resources in this sector is one of the major threats to contemporary social work education in Nepal. Most of the academicians and the academic institutions offering the course themselves are not well aware about the profession, which further results in producing incompetent human resources in the sector. As a result of these initiatives in offering social work course especially after 2006, the opportunities to study social work have increased in Nepal but the irony leads to the ground reality of not having the strong understanding of the profession and well trained human resources. Most of the colleges offering this course in Nepal are lacking in trained human resources and enriched field practicum placements, which is eventually the essence of social work studies. The attitude of looking at social work in a peripheral level and the predetermined mind set of taking it up as an easy profession is a well known fact of the contemporary Nepalese society. Unfortunately, institutions offering social work have been a failure in rooting out this misunderstood fact.
Second, perceiving this course as easy money by business minded academic institutions has become another huge threat to the social work profession in Nepal. Social work course is popular among the young Nepalese who see devoting themselves in social development field, which is unfortunately fuelled by the greedy desire to work in big brands of NGOs and INGOs. This has become a golden opportunity for business minded academic institutions to attract students in the name of providing them with quality social work education. Lack of social work council and strong monitoring body has become the strength of money making colleges. As a result today Nepal has more than ninety social work colleges, who are misleading students and selling their dreams of professional and trained social workers in Nepal which in fact is still a far cry from reality. This course is a good way of making money particularly because of its curriculum nature. Social work is a practical based education and most of the colleges in Nepal have more than thirty-three percent of field work practice i.e. in six working days, four days are for theoretical classes and the rest two days for field work placement. As part of field placement, students are placed in different developmental organizations like NGOs, CBOs and INGOs as social work trainee in order to get practical knowledge. Expenses of the colleges are cut down by nearly half as much since only about 66% of the classes are theoretical while the rest 34% which includes field placement comes with no financial investment from the colleges at all. Hence the direct expenditure here is hiring the professors for the four days classes on a part time basis. But the fact remains that they charge full tuition fees from the students for entire three years. This is one of the reasons why business oriented institutions are attracted towards promoting social work course in Nepal at present day.
Finally, lack of effective monitoring in social work colleges by Universities is a huge threat to the social work profession in Nepal. The growing social work institutions in Nepal at present are the result of poor monitoring from the Universities. The universities of Nepal have been giving permission to the local colleges for offering social work courses without even monitoring the minimum standards of social work profession and Tribhuwan University (the oldest University in the country) is leading in this matter. With the exception of two colleges; St. Xaviers College and Kadambari Memorial College, all other colleges of Nepal are affiliated to the Tribhuwan University and are offering similar model of bachelors with social work as a major subject. The unplanned growth of private social work colleges with the motive of profit making has been fuelled by the poor monitoring and control mechanisms of Universities of Nepal. It is the responsibility and duty of the Universities to monitor and regulate the colleges that offer social work programs and ensure that the needs of the courses are met. And also make sure that the products meet professional standards as demand by social work associations as IASSW (International Association of Schools of Social Work) and APASWE (Asian and Pacific Association of Social Work Education).
This sort of unprecedented growth of social work colleges in Nepal has been playing a crucial role in sullying the image and significance of social work education. As a result the faith of young population, who are the actual propagators of social work, are being washed out from this profession. The beauty of social work education has been corrupted because of accepting this profession as an easy way out to accomplish success by both the academic institutions and students. From my own experience, I have witnessed that the students are attracted towards this profession because of its curriculum structure; field work practice, camps, travelling work. Most of them have further misused this opportunity. Students take field work practice as granted and as a chance to miss classes. The culture of bunking field work practice by the students and lack of proper field work monitoring by the host colleges is a well known fact in today’s social work education practice in Nepal. This is ultimately the result of growing numbers of social work colleges without even understanding the minimum code, principles and ethics of social work. If this mushrooming of social work colleges is not monitored and controlled at present, social work education in Nepal might be in a list of vanished profession in near future.
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