Nepal is far behind in education. The average years of schooling is about 3 against a school cycle of 12 years. About 60% of the population over 15 years has educated, with significant differences between rural and urban and between males and females. Indeed, the female literacy rate (in 2001) was only about 40%, again with significant differences between the various areas of the country.
The country has just emerged from a little known bloody civil war that since 1996 has claimed more than 10,000 victims.
Since May 28, 2008, after 240 years of monarchy, it is a Federal Democratic Republic.