The Batuk

Learning English Through Non-English Subjects: A Survey on Nepalese EFL Students

Bashu Dev Wagle — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In Nepal, students are taught various subjects using two different mediums of instruction. The majority of teachers prefer using English as the medium of instruction, but there are still some who opt for their mother tongue. This research aimed to investigate the impact of teaching English through non-English subjects on the vocabulary development of Nepalese EFL students. A total of seventy-four students participated in this study and were divided into two groups: one group learned English through non-English subjects (SLETNES) as the experimental group, while the other group learned non-English subjects in their mother tongue (SLNESMT) as the control group, based on teachers’ preferences for the medium of instruction. Both groups of students completed a questionnaire, and the data collected were analyzed to determine which group exhibited better vocabulary learning outcomes. The study spanned four sessions, with each session lasting 40 minutes. The data analysis revealed a significant difference between the two groups, with SLETNES students being exposed to a more extensive vocabulary.

Cultural Sustainability and Samosa Colonialism: A Decolonizing Thinking Practice

Purushottam Ghimire, Binod Prasad Pant — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Tarai region of Nepal was well renowned for its epistemic diversity of Mithila art-based cultures. It included poetry, theatre, stories, proverbs, metaphors, jokes, songs, folklore, dance, and music, as well as dialogue, myths, local proverbs, photographs, and drawings. Cultural sustainability can be defined as the ability to uphold or enhance beliefs and perspectives in the face of outside influences, such as colonial practices. The Samosa trade has been found to have promoted colonial practice in some Terai places, bringing significant changes in the indigenous lifestyle and culture. It seems that this is because of the well-known culture-based cartoons from South India known as Motu Patlu. In this context, this study aims to explore the relevance of indigenous thinking, practice, and social responsibility in a contextualized local education system. For that, we conducted a qualitative study using purposive expert group discussions and follow-up tele-interviews to investigate epistemic plurality within the constructivist framework. The study showed that local agricultural productivity has decreased, which has hurt the ecosystem and biodiversity. Similarly, everyone developed a spending habit as a result of the market shopping tradition. Therefore, the revolution of evolution is the need of the moment to inculcate correct indigenous values and practices through the educational system.

The Implications of Climate Variability on the Livelihood of Local Communities of Melamchi Municipality

Sahista Thapa, Anil Bhandari — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Climate change is humanity's most serious concern, with far-reaching and severe consequences for people, ecosystem services, and the environment. The study aims to evaluate the implications of climate variability on the livelihood of local communities of Melamchi municipality. The study collected primary data through focus groups, interviews, and observations and analyzed 31 years of precipitation and temperature data. The study assessed participatory vulnerability to climate change using indicators of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Analysis of precipitation data showed decreasing annual rainfall trends at Dubachaur and Baunepati stations, while Sarmathang station showed an increasing trend. The maximum average annual temperature has shown a rising trend in all three stations. The RAI analysis showed that 2009 had the highest negative value, with an RAI of -4.87, classified as extremely dry from the rainfall data collected from the Baunepati station. Respondents reported severe climate change impacts on livelihoods, including increased temperatures, shifting rainfall, drought, water shortages, and invasive species. The study recommends urgently enhancing local climate adaptation efforts by integrating considerations of water security, food systems, and disaster risk reduction into development planning.

Importance of Data Preprocessing and Parameters Tuning for Supervised Machine Learning Models on Tweets Sentiment Analysis

Saurab Adhikari — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This paper shows the comparison of five different supervised machine learning models by showing the accuracy and classification report of these models when used for tweets sentiments analysis while showing the improvement in accuracy when data was preprocessed and parameters were tuned. The five different models that were used are: NaiveBayes, Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and XG Boost. Total of 25000 tweets were processed, analyzed and predicted the output as positive, negative, or neutral using those models. This research would help to understand which models should be used and followed and which model would yield higher accuracy while using various approaches of data preprocessing and parameters tuning. The paper also tries to show that the standard models can still perform better and are still viable for sentiment analysis while SVM and Random Forest classifiers maybe viewed as standard learning strategies.

Does Microfinance Affect Women Empowerment? Evidence from Rautahat District of Nepal

Bharat Singh Thapa, Yadav Amit — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The issue of women empowerment is a significant focus in developing countries as it has a high potential for poverty reduction and overall development. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have emerged as potential instruments for addressing both poverty and women's empowerment. This study investigated the connection between microfinance and women's empowerment in rural Nepal. Through a survey among 150 women clients of MFIs in Rautahat district, the study analyzed how social empowerment of women changes after participation is microfinance programs. Employing hypotheses testing with statistical tests like the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and One-sample t-test, the study found compelling evidence of a positive influence of microfinance on women's empowerment. After participation in microfinance programs, women's status was found significantly increased in terms of ownership in assets, decision-making autonomy, freedom of mobility and social recognition. These findings suggest that microfinance can be a valuable tool for empowering women in developing countries, potentially leading to improved social well-being, and increased participation in community decision-making. However, further research is needed to understand the long-term sustainability of these impacts and address potential challenges such as debt burden and social stigma associated with borrowing.

Impact of Credit Risk and Macroeconomic Variables on the Profitability of Commercial Banks in Nepal

Damodar Niraula, Sujita Maharjan — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This study was conducted to examine the impact of credit risk and macroeconomic variables on the profitability of commercial banks in Nepal. Return on assets and earnings per share of the banks were taken as regrassands. Whereas, as regressors, non-performing loan, capital adequacy ratio and credit to deposit ratio were taken as the proxies of credit risk, and GDP growth rate, consumer price index and base rate were studied as indicators of macroeconomic variables. Following simple random sampling techniques, 14 commercial banks were selected as sample for the study. The required quantitative data were retrived from annual financial reports of the banks. Data were analyzed on Gretl software. The Pearson correlation and Ordinary Lease Square model for regression resulted that the GDP growth rate was insignificant in defining the variation on return on assets. Likely, inflation and base rate were not significant in defining the variation on earning per share. Result of this study provided sufficient scope to bankers in developing their growth strategies.

Human Resource Management Practices and Organizational Performance: An Empirical Study of Manufacturing and Service Institutions of Nepal

Gopal Man Pradhan — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Modern HRM policies and strategies are replacing traditional personnel concepts in HRM practices, which are continuously changing in Nepalese enterprises. This study is focused on assessing the human resource practices in the manufacturing and service institutions in Nepal and their relationship with organizational performance in terms of employee turnover and productivity. The required data were collected from 12 manufacturing companies and 23 service providing institutions by administering a set of questionnaires. Data were processed on SPSS and EViews. The correlation results suggested that there is negative association between HRM practices and employee turnover whereas there is positive association between HRM practices and productivity. The regression results suggested that there is a negative impact of HRM practices on employee turnover whereas there is positive impact on productivity.

Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction With Reference to Cellular Phone Industry of Nepal

Makshindra Thapa, Poonam Nath Yogi — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Over the past decades, the Nepalese telecommunications sector has grown remarkable due to increasing use of smartphones in various purposes. Quality in cellular phone service is always assumed as primary factor to attract and retain customer, thus customer satisfaction in relation to this industry is vital for the companies. The users of cellular phone expect quality on various service provided and wish fair value and satisfaction. The purpose of the paper is to assess customer perception in five dimensions of service quality (i.e.; tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy) using SERVPERF model and their association with customer satisfaction. A structured questionnaire survey conducted to collect opinions from 336 sample representing service users of various service providers. The collected data was processed and analyzed using SPSS software. The questionnaire including 22 service quality measures and four satisfaction measures was used. The results from descriptive analysis suggested the presence of acceptable service quality. In addition, the Pearson’s correlation indicated positive and significant associations between the five dimensions of service quality and customer satisfaction.

Impact of Strategic Human Resource Management Practices on Employee Retention

Prakash Shrestha, Mamata Prajapati — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This paper aims to analyze the impact of strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices on employee retention. This study employed a quantitative research approach. Senior-level people including CEOs, DCEOs, general managers, operation in-charges, HR managers, and branch managers of six commercial banks and six insurance companies were requested to respond to a series of questionnaires to collect data. 240 questionnaires were distributed; 167 questionnaires (69.58%) were returned and used for analysis. The results suggest that the banks and insurance companies in Nepal might retain their workforces in part by implementing SHRM practices. Out of five indicators of SHRM practices only three indicators such as recruitment and selection, compensation and benefits, and career management practices have a significant and positive impact on employee retention, whereas two indicators such as training and performance appraisal practices have a negative impact on employee retention. In fact, employee retention is the main problem that Nepalese commercial banks and insurance are facing. This is due to high employee turnover. Therefore, they need to focus on employee retention through the effective application of SHRM practices. They also need to create a cohesive set of employment policies to attract and retain skilled employees.

Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns: An Application of Fama-French Five Factor Model in Nepal

Vishal Joshi — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This study aimed to analyze the efficiency of Fama-French five factor model to explain cross-section stock returns in Nepalese stock market. The study adopted descriptive and analytical research design. Out of 228 firms listed in NEPSE, following judgmental sampling design, 65 firms were selected which met the sampling criteria. Panel data was collected from secondary source for the period of July 16, 2016 to July 16, 2022. Sampling frame, daily stock prices and dividends were obtained from official website of Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE). Firm-specific accounting data was obtained from annual reports of sample firms. 28 days weighted average Treasury bill rates were used as a proxy for risk free rate which was obtained from Economic bulletin of Nepal Rastra Bank. Three types of portfolios were constructed namely 25 Size-BM portfolios, 25 Size-ROE portfolios and 25 Size-Investment portfolios. Factor returns were created by using 2 × 3 and 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 sorting. Regression result revealed that the Fama-French five factor model is capable to capture the variation in cross-section stock returns in Nepal. Among five factors, the market risk premium found to be the most prominent factor affecting stock returns.