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The country is getting a new Prime Minister today. 

It is stated that President Ram Chandra Paudel is scheduled to administer the oath of office and secrecy to senior leader of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), Balendra Shah, as the Prime Minister of Nepal at the President's Office, Sheetal Niwas, this afternoon. 

Before administering the oath, Shah will be informed about his appointment as the Prime Minister. 

As per the Article 76 (1) of the Nepal Constitution, a single-party government will be formed. 

The President's Office has informed that the ceremony for taking the oath of office and secrecy of the Prime Minister has been set for the afternoon. 

Leaders of various political parties, representatives of diplomatic missions in Kathmandu, civil society, and high-placed government officials have been invited to attend the ceremony. 

It is noted that the ministers will also take the oath of office and secrecy along with the Prime Minister today itself. 

In the House of Representatives election held on last March 5, the Rastriya Swatantra Party secured 182 seats. 

On Thursday, the party picked leader Shah as the Parliamentary Party leader.

Leader Shah emerged victorious with 68,348 votes from Jhapa Constituency No. 5 in the House of Representatives election. 

On Thursday, HoR's senior-most member, Arjun Narsingh KC, administered the oath of office and secrecy to the members of Parliament. 

In the wake of Nepal’s youth-led political shift, there is a renewed sense of hope across the country, a belief that things can be done differently, that long-standing systems can be re-examined, and that policy can begin to reflect the realities of the people it serves. For educators, this moment feels deeply personal. Between my parents and myself, we have spent close to six decades in education, shaping classrooms, preparing teachers, and building institutions. From this vantage point, of experience, responsibility, and continued investment in Nepal’s future, I often reflect on a crucial need: that the education policy we shape must be truly inclusive, adaptive, and reflective of the needs of a modern Nepali society.

A modern education policy must recognize that private schools are not merely optional institutions but an essential part of a diverse education ecosystem. Free education, as guaranteed by the Constitution, is vital, but so too is the right of communities to access schools that meet the specific needs of their children. These principles are not mutually exclusive. Private schools fill gaps, whether through higher accountability, specialized programs, or approaches that prioritize skills alongside academics. In a diverse society, no single system can serve every child and family equally; providing choice ensures that students have access to environments where they can meaningfully learn and grow.

The policy must also actively encourage international collaboration. Thousands of Nepali students leave the country each year in search of better educational opportunities. This is not only a reflection of aspiration, but also of gaps within our own system. An education policy that allows schools to engage with global resources, pedagogical practices, and academic collaborations creates the possibility of strengthening learning at home. Affiliations, teacher training, access to international content, and the ability to bring in expertise from outside Nepal are not departures from national identity. Rather, they are ways of ensuring that Nepali students are not learning in isolation and remain connected to the advancements shaping education globally. A more open system allows schools to evolve, innovate, and remain relevant and dynamic in a rapidly changing world.

One of the reflections of how inclusion is understood in policy lies in the way language is treated within the curriculum. Nepal’s classrooms are far more diverse than policy often acknowledges. This diversity is not only diverse in terms of returning students or international learners, but also across communities within Nepal whose mother tongue is not Nepali. When proficiency in Nepali language and literature is assumed, and when subjects like Social Studies are taught exclusively in Nepali, the medium itself can become a barrier to learning.

Creating flexibility within this structure, whether through alternative Nepali language learner tracks in 

place of standard language and literature, or more accessible approaches to teaching Social Studies in the language of comfort, allows students to engage with content more meaningfully. This adjustment would not only support Nepali returnees but also ensure that students from diverse linguistic communities within Nepal are not disadvantaged by a one-size-fits-all requirement. At the same time, it creates space for all learners to connect with Nepali language and culture in ways that are accessible and relevant. Inclusion, in this sense, is not about lowering standards, but about ensuring that language enables learning rather than limits it.

Diversity within the teaching community is equally essential. The ability to bring in educators from different backgrounds, including international faculty, strengthens cross-cultural understanding, enriches pedagogical practice, and exposes students to multiple perspectives. These are not peripheral advantages; they are central to preparing students for a global and interconnected world. Yet, practical barriers such as restrictive hiring processes, visa restrictions, and high costs often make this difficult. Addressing these constraints would allow schools to build more dynamic, globally relevant learning environments, aligned with broader national aspirations of openness, collaboration, and growth.

At the same time, inclusion must extend to students whose needs fall outside conventional systems. 

As I explored in my 2025 op-ed titled ‘The Invisible Student’, every child has the right to education and the ability to move through it with dignity. Flexible pathways, curriculum modifications, accommodations, and alternative forms of certification are not exceptions; they are essential to ensuring that education serves every learner it is meant to reach. Only then can the principles of human dignity and equity, central to any modern education policy, be truly upheld.

If Nepal is to foster collaboration, innovation, and growth, its education system must be open enough to evolve and responsive enough to reflect the realities of its learners. This includes students across geographies, languages, abilities, and aspirations. Schools that are able to respond to this diversity are better positioned to nurture not just academic success, but confidence, adaptability, and a sense of belonging.

Such an approach also carries implications beyond the classroom. When students feel that the system reflects their realities and aspirations, the impulse to look outward for opportunity begins to shift. Retention of talent, meaningful engagement with the Nepali diaspora, and the ability to attract learners from beyond our borders all emerge more organically from a system that is innovative, relevant, and inclusive at its core.

The opportunity before this government is significant. An education policy that is open, equitable, and future-ready has the potential to shape not just institutions, but the direction of the country itself. If done well, it can create a system that retains talent, and positions the country as a hub for learning in the region.

The election of March 5 stands as a transformative milestone in Nepal’s democratic evolution, effectively dismantling the long-standing narrative that the Constitution of Nepal 2015 created insurmountable structural barriers to a single-party mandate. For years, the prevailing wisdom among political analysts suggested that the country’s mixed electoral framework, with its heavy emphasis on proportional representation, rendered a decisive majority nearly impossible for any nascent political force. 

However, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) defied these theoretical constraints by securing an unprecedented number of parliamentary seats and over 5m proportional votes. This massive electoral ‘signature’ served as a powerful public referendum on the leadership of Rabi Lamichhane, functioning as a popular exoneration while he remained in legal custody facing allegations of cooperative finance fraud. This outcome suggests that a significant portion of the electorate viewed these judicial proceedings as politically motivated rather than purely legal, signaling a profound shift in the national psyche toward a collective aspiration for prosperity that transcends traditional partisan arithmetic.

By positioning itself as a disruptor of systemic corruption and administrative lethargy, the RSP has demonstrated that a platform centered on institutional integrity can overcome the perceived limitations of a fragmented multiparty system. Yet, this victory brings with it a complex set of challenges, particularly regarding the intersection of judicial process and political will. 

While the RSP successfully harnessed public frustration to secure power, it must now perform the difficult task of translating populist momentum into stable, rule-of-law-based governance. To satisfy the expectations of a diverse citizenry without further polarizing the nation’s legal and political institutions, the party must convert its immense political capital into a coherent and functional fiscal pathway. The mandate is rooted in a fundamental public trust that the RSP can modernize the economy and restore ethical purity to state institutions; a goal that necessitates a radical departure from a status quo-ist fiscal policy.

A central pillar of this reform agenda involves a comprehensive overhaul of Nepal’s Public Financial Management (PFM) to address deep-seated structural imbalances that have long stunted national economic development and growth. According to data from the Nepal Rastra Bank, the national GDP at current prices has reached Rs 6,107.2bn, but the composition of this figure reveals a concerning reality: the service sector dominates at 62.01 percent, while agriculture and industry contribute a mere 25.16 percent and 12.82 percent, respectively. 

This heavy reliance on services has failed to generate sufficient high-quality employment or significant value-added economic growth, placing immense pressure on the incoming RSP government to pivot toward aggressive industrial expansion. Strengthening the industrial sector is not merely a fiscal preference but a structural necessity for fostering meaningful job creation, setting up an export-oriented economy and achieving long-term, sustainable economic stability.

The existing national revenue architecture, though diverse, remains increasingly strained by its reliance on a complex but inefficient portfolio of instruments, including income taxes, VAT, and specialized levies for health and education. Even as the Inland Revenue Department reports a steady upward trajectory in total revenue from Rs 429.3bn in 2020-21 to Rs 583.82bn in 2024-25, these nominal gains mask significant underlying vulnerabilities. 

Most especially, the Department of Customs highlights a precarious imbalance where import-related revenue reached Rs 478bn in the latest fiscal year, dwarfing export-related revenue of only Rs 277bn. This datapoint underscores a disproportionate and risky dependence on trade-based public revenue, which leaves the national budget highly susceptible to global market fluctuations and external shocks.

Despite rising revenue figures, the Ministry of Finance continues to face formidable challenges in meeting its fiscal targets due to systemic weaknesses within its primary institutions. These institutional bottlenecks include a chronic deficit of skilled human capital, substandard technological infrastructure, and the persistent threat of moral hazard within the PFM administration. Such vulnerabilities ensure that the modernization of PFM entities remains a critical but largely unfulfilled mandate. 

Without addressing these fundamental administrative flaws and diversifying the tax base away from volatile import duties, the government will likely continue to struggle with fiscal shortfalls. Consequently, the RSP must lead a comprehensive PFM reform that simplifies tax structures while broadening the base across all levels of the federal polity, ensuring that the modernization of PFM entities move from a theoretical goal to an operational reality.

Furthermore, a decade into the federal transition, the promise of genuine fiscal federalism remains in a state of perilous limbo. At the subnational government level, revenue mobilization is severely hampered by operational hurdles and an inefficient bureaucracy that prevents provincial and local governments from exercising their constitutional fiscal autonomy. Revitalizing subnational governance is a vital priority and without enhancing the efficacy of the subnational polity, the federal system can neither collect nor strategically mobilize the resources required to address the urgent needs of its citizenry. 

Establishing transparency in budgeting, auditing, and fiscal reporting is essential to fostering public trust and enhancing the scientific application of federal transfers. Additionally, the government must adopt strategic debt management, strictly limiting sovereign borrowing to productive, high-yield investments to close the financing gap for high-priority projects without jeopardizing long-term solvency.

The budget (for the fiscal year 2026-27) of the RSP must also prioritize inclusive microeconomic integration to uplift rural and marginalized communities who have placed their faith in the RSP. The objective is to move beyond mere subsistence, fostering an environment where marginalized populations are integrated into national economic value chains by stimulating local entrepreneurship and increasing productive capacity. This requires a dual-track approach to youth engagement and industrialization that balances short-term job creation with long-term structural transformation. Rather than maintaining a narrow focus on traditional microfinance, which often leads to high-interest debt cycles without capital growth, the budget should emphasize comprehensive rural finance programs designed to facilitate capital formation and technical scaling. 

By providing affordable, long-term credit and strengthening SME financing policies, the RSP can ensure that capital is directed toward productive investments rather than just consumption, making the youth stakeholders in a decentralized, inclusive economy.

To catalyze this broader transformation, the RSP must prioritize a strategic pivot toward energy and infrastructure, investing in new generation projects to lower electricity costs and modernizing the grid to support industrial demand. Rather than exporting raw energy at a discount, the goal must be the cultivation of an energy-intensive domestic economy at every river basin level supported by robust logistics hubs. Parallel to this, the ICT sector offers immense potential for economic diversification. By spearheading a digital economy initiative and providing tax incentives for startups, the state can leverage domestic energy to fuel technology services. A national digital training program for youth, coupled with the full digitization of government business, would absorb the trained labor force and reduce administrative costs, mirroring successful models of youth mobilization seen in advanced economies.

Ultimately, the RSP’s success will be measured by its ability to drive agrarian transformation and industrial revitalization. The budget must emphasize ‘smart farming’, integrated agro-processing, and robust rural infrastructure to minimize post-harvest losses. Simultaneously, the strategic revival of distressed or ‘sick’ industries such as jute, rubber, paper, and textiles; offers a ‘triple benefit’ of employment generation, import substitution, and enhanced national competitiveness. 

By modernizing social services through digital classrooms and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) curricula, the RSP can ensure long-term human development and capability lead to function. Shifting national priorities away from a reliance on remittances and toward high-growth sectors like tourism and sustainable farming will build a truly inclusive macroeconomic framework. These reforms serve as a tangible reward for the mandate granted by the citizenry, translating the political support for leaders like Rabi Lamichhane and Balendra Shah into a resilient, self-sufficient national economy that finally fulfills the public trust. 

Balendra Shah (Balen) has been elected as the Parliamentary Party leader of the Rastriya Swatantra Party.

Spokesperson Manish Jha said that the Central Committee meeting held today unanimously passed the proposal of party President Rabi Lamichhane to appoint Shah as the Parliamentary Party leader.

Shah is set to become the Prime Minister from the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which is going to form a single government after winning 182 seats in the House of Representative elections held on March 5.

He is scheduled to take the oath of office and secrecy at 12: 34 pm on Friday.