The Constitution of 1990 and the Education Act (Seventh Amendment 2001) underpins the right of every child to free primary education with the choice of learning in the mother tongue. Promoting social inclusion is important on the government's reform agenda. This fact has been reflected pertinently in the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007, of which Article 17 stipulates that: (i) each community shall have the right to get basic education in their mother tongue as provided for in the law; (ii) every citizen shall have the right to free education from the State up to secondary level as provided for in the law; (iii) each community residing in Nepal shall have the right to preserve and promote its language, script, culture, cultural civility and heritage (Government of Nepal 1990, 2001).

The Ministry of Education is the leading institution/organization responsible for initiating and managing education activities in the country. In order to bring education administration nearer to the people, the Ministry has established five Regional Education Directorates (REDs) in five development regions and 75 District Education Offices (DEOs) in 75 districts respectively. Each RED is responsible for monitoring the progress and achievements of school education (both primary and secondary) in its respective development region. Moreover, it provides supervision and administrative support to district education offices, and also assists with conducting the school level national examinations. Schools in Nepal generally follow the principle of school-based management that assigns school management functions to the respective School Management Committee (SMC) with accountability to stakeholders including local bodies such as the village development committee (VDC), municipality and district development committee (DDC) (UNESCO 2008).

Other then the Ministry of Education (MoE) and its regional and district offices, there are other education institutions that play critical role in the development of the education sector. These include National Center for Education Development (NCED), The Curriculum Development Center (CDC), Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB), The Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) and Quality Assurance and Accreditation Council (QAAC) (UNESCO 2008).

NCED is the central-level body responsible for teacher training. It develops training packages for training of in-service teachers of grades 1-10. There is no teacher training programme for beyond grade 10.  CDC has the responsibility of developing curricula and textbooks for general education (grades 1-10). The curriculum of each subject is implemented after it is approved by the National Curriculum Council (NCC) headed by the MoE. HSEB was established in 1989 to efficiently and effectively operate the 10+2 education system in the country. In addition to conducting national examinations and publishing results, awarding certificates to higher secondary graduates and granting approval to +2 schools, the board also conducts other activities such as monitoring, research, recruiting to mention but a few. CTEVT, constituted in 1989, is a national autonomous body of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sub-sector committed to the production of technical and skillful human resources required by the nation. QAAC has been established to look at the issues of quality assurance and accreditation in education in Nepal (UNESCO 2008).