“What’s in a name? William Shakespeare once said in one of his epic love story ‘Romeo and Juliet. Romeo, can just change his name and Juliet will still love him, because he is still the same person, and retains that love and dear perfection which he owes for her. Similarly, be it foreign or Nepali name of the education institutions, if they have the good attribute and passion, they can provide quality education. The mere holding of foreign names does not make them of superior. Rather, it is just a mimicry of being a class apart, and a greater affiliation to foreign institutions, which most of them are not. This trend only reaps copy cat culture.
Foreign countries, especially the western ones, with their high-rise skyscrapers, bright city light, hoards of tourism and cultural attractions, social security and employment opportunity have always attracted people living in the third world. Those green in the other side of the lawn propels the people in these poverty stricken countries weaving dream of going there and live a descent life. Nevertheless, entering into their dreamland is not easy. Every year, hundreds of people- pursuing their dream of the western world- are detained from the tight chambers of cargo trucks in the Mexican-American border during their attempt to illegally cross the border. Only few of them succeed while others are detained. Some of them die of suffocation and other injuries.
Conversely, road to the western world is somehow easy for students because educational institutions in the west accept students from across the globe, including those belonging to poor countries, and some of the institutions also offer scholarships. Bright and lucky students get enrolled while large number of students are left with their dream unfulfilled.
Fiscal year 2010/11 showed the 22 percent increase to 11,972 in the number of students going for abroad study. in In the fiscal year 2011/12, according to the Ministry of Education’s proxy indicator- acquiring No Objection Letter as a measure of student going abroad, the major destinations of Nepali students are UK, followed by USA, Australia, Japan, China, Bangladesh and India. However, due to tightening visa rules, lack of work permission, and recession in the destination countries, large number of students are disqualified from enrolling into the western universities. Knowing those student’s great affinity towards western universities, some of the educational institutions in Nepal have borrowed their name exactly resembling the famous colleges and universities from the west. There are more than three hundreds educational institutions with English or foreign names. Most of them have foreign names from the student’s most preferred destinations, UK and the USA. Apart from the English names, educational institutions have borrowed their foreign names belonging to popular landmarks from UK and USA, popular football club (even the logo), regions of the western hemisphere, and surnames of the past American presidents.
Developing countries, including Nepal, belonging to the distant corner of the world are usually left un-noticed by the western world. The education institutions in the west are, however, not so much aware of their names copied in the very small market in the third world. This violation of copyright rule in the infinitesimaly small market does not make a significant difference for them. In addition, due to the weak implementation of the copy right laws, the infringement is left un-noticed and unpunished. Otherwise, Nepal belonging to one of the member of the WTO in 2004, is liable to honor the rule of international copy right laws, according to which any institutions in the member countries are allowed to copy the name-- in full or in part that is already taken, otherwise, it is punishable by international copyright laws.
Furthermore, crowning the English or foreign names to the educational institutions does not necessarily mean an excellence in performance. Many colleges with Nepali name have equally performed par-excellence in terms of quality and number of students attaining distinction. However, there are equal number of educational institutions, both with English and Nepali names, performing well.
Nepal’s educational institutions are unaware of their true potentials. Some of them are really good in producing world class education. This has already been manifested by some Nepali colleges have produced students acquiring excellence in Cambridge ‘A’ level exam. If those institutions are capable to sustain their vigour, one day, they may become one among the best colleges in the world, in certain education faculties, and become visible in the global education platform. At that time, that college is recognized by the institutions through out the world. However, if that college has foreign name, it may not properly represent Nepal in the global education domain, and may reap suspicion among those western universities and our possible would be international students.
Nonetheless, Asian including Nepali students are equally competent enough to compete with the western students. The habit of these students- capable of reciting the entire lesson, enduring long hours of continuous study and perseverance- has helped them to excel in some of the theoretical subjects, which is considered difficult and boring by the western students. Most western teenage love to study liberal arts and colorful subjects i.e. fashion, tourism, music., therefore, there is huge scope for third world as well as Nepali students to perform better in the subjects that needs long hours of endurance. It is quite possible that Nepali students acquiring excellent marks may knock the door of western education institutions- Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, NASA etc to persue further degree and research opportunity. Those really bright and deserving students with already having college certificates resembling Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, NASA may be, by chance, may be suspected or labelled as ‘fake’ instead of giving enrollment. However, such reaction is still to be observed.
The education institution is pivotal in shaping the etiquette and culture among students. After the graduation from those colleges, the effect of ‘foreign names’ may further reflect in the life of students while establishing a business, naming their local landmark, or having kids. They may follow the same culture. This is however, can not be claimed, but we can see, large number of the educational consultancies, restaurants, small businesses and new generation of kids have foreign names. Assigning foreign names or names of the established brand to those businesses, landmarks or kids does not necessarily heredites the original character of that established brand, institution or people. Can a dog kill a buffalo if it is named tiger? The answer is absolutely not. Therefore, the foreign names of the educational institutions only reaps copy-cat culture which is manifestation of crisis of creativity among them.
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