Social Work Education in South Asia Insights from Nepal

Social Work has grown in to a global profession in the last five decades. Professional Social Workers work with clients and communities in need and develop coping and resilience skills so that they are able to solve their own problems. Social Work in the South Asia region is deeply embedded within a social welfare paradigm and the initiation of professional training in social work dates back to 1930s. Since then professional social work has come a long way by addressing the diversity and complexity of the south Asian region. The paper presents the history of development of professional social work in the south Asian region. It analyzes the trends of social work education in the region. The paper presents challenges and opportunities of social work education in Nepal so as to provide further discussion. May be there are lessons that Romania can learn from Nepal and vice versa. The different status social work education in the countries of the south Asia region suggests that there is lack of coherence and coordination among schools of social work within the country and across the borders. Political, Social, economic and cultural factors are influencing the development of social work in each of the countries. Four major issues and challenges confront professional social work development in the region: the lack of state recognition and low image of the social work profession. Second, the need to develop integrated social work education and training opportunities, thirdly, the importance of institutionalizing professional social work practice standards, and fourthly, employment of social workers in different government service delivery institutions to reach the poorest of the poor.. By drawing experiences of the South Asia region this paper provides future directions to further development of international social work.

Keywords: Nepal, South Asia, Social Work Education, International social work, Challenges, Opportunities