Presented By: Sudarshan Adhikari, The Ohio State University
Co-Authors: Emily Buck, The Ohio State University
Bipul Gautam, Madan Pokhara Polytechnic Institute, Nepal

High school (diploma-level) agricultural education makes up a notable proportion of the Nepalese vocational education system. Issues of educational quality in the system remains a topic of dialogue in terms of policy as well as at the institutional level for a long time. Debates and discussions on the ways to ensuring quality education continues to progress. A potential way of quality enhancement is through addressing the problems faced by the instructors resulting in higher satisfaction among them, and in turn, fostering better performance. This research employed a qualitative case study approach aiming to explore the problems experienced by diploma-level agricultural instructors of Nepal, and their suggestions to solve those problems. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 agricultural (plant science and animal science) instructors of Madan Pokhara polytechnic institute, a constituent college of Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT), Nepal. Besides audio recording the interview, real-time observation was also done noting their facial expressions, gestures, and inflection on particular words. The findings show that lack of encouragement, relationship with the administration, limited openings of permanent job offerings, public transportation channels, and student absence were the major problems for the instructors. The instructors also emphasized issues of work-life balance, instructional skills, community relation, school image, declining students, and priority of the profession. For addressing the problems they were facing, instructors suggested provisions of appropriate encouragements, trainings on instructional development and information and communication technologies, and relationship building initiatives with administrative officials, fellow instructors, and the community. Motivations and career counseling among students were also suggested by the instructors. The implications of problems and solutions identified in the study is specific to the researched institution. However, it may act as the foundation or reference to conduct further studies covering more participants, allowing to generalize to a broader area and context.