NO EXAMS till 5th grade! Nepal PM Balen Shah announces sweeping education reforms in 100-point agenda, bans student politics due to…
Nepal’s new Prime Minister Balen Shah on Sunday announced sweeping education reforms in his first cabinet meeting, including no examinations for students till the 5th grade, and a blanket ban on student politics in higher-educational institutions such as universities and colleges.
Balen Shah eliminates school exams till Class 5
Balendra Shah, 35, who was sworn in as the 47th Prime Minister of Nepal on Friday, presented a 100-point agenda of governance that includes major reforms to improve the country’s education system by aiming to make education more inclusive and student-friendly.
One of the significant changes is the decision to completely eliminate internal examinations in schools for students up to the 5th grade. Instead, their progress will be assessed through alternative and psychoanalytical methods, creating a stress-free and holistic learning environment.
Additionally, the Balen Shah government has announced that universities will now be required to publish exam results according to the academic calendar, while citizenship certificates are no longer mandatory to seek admission in Nepali varsities.
Why Balen Shah govt banned student politics?
Another major move by the new dispensation is the decision to ban student politics in universities and colleges, in order to nurture a politics-free environment on campuses and improve quality of education in higher institutions.
Under the new law, student organizations affiliated with political parties are banned from from Nepal’s colleges and universities, and following the order Nepalese authorities have directed these group to withdraw their presence from campuses within a specified timeframe.
However, to ensure student representation, the new government announced it will establish non-political “student councils” within 90 days, which will be free of political interference, and serve as platforms for student voices.
“Depoliticizing the administration: All government employees and teachers will be barred from affiliation with political parties, and partisan trade unions will be abolished,” reads an official document by the Balen Shah government.
Who is Balen Shah?
A structural engineer by profession, Balen Shah was a popular Nepali rapper before he ventured into politics, winning the 2022 Kathmandu mayoral election as an independent candidate.
Balendra Shah holds a Master of Science (M.Tech) in Structural Engineering from the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) in Nagpur, India, and came to the forefront during the 2025 Nepal Gen-Z protest, when he emerged as a popular face among the country’s youth.
Following the Gen-Z revolution, which reshaped Nepal’s political landscape, Balen Shah founded the Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and scored a landslide victory in the recently-held Nepal general elections.
On March 27, 2026, the 35-year-old rapper-turned-politician was sworn-in as the 47th Prime Minister of Nepal, marking a major shift in the political landscape of the Himalayan nation, which had previously been dominated by a select group of political parties and leaders, who rotated power amongst themselves.