Nepal is a federal republic. After the transition between the monarchy and the republican form, a provisional Constitution was approved (2007) (which modifies the fundamental text promulgated in 1990), which entrusted the executive power to the prime minister. The legislative power, exercised by the Parliament, was then entrusted to the Constituent Assembly (2008). Justice is administered by a Supreme Court. There are also some regional, zonal and district courts, which have civil and criminal jurisdiction. The system of law in use is based on a mixture of the Common Law British and Hindu precepts. The enactments of the International Court of Justice are not recognized as binding. The defense of the state is entrusted to the army and aviation; these weapons are joined by a paramilitary police force. Military service is carried out on a voluntary basis, starting from 18 years of age. Modern teaching was introduced to the country in 1877, with the creation of a Sanskrit language school; the Nepali language was instead adopted as the official language of teaching only in 1934. Education, which is partly influenced by India, is free and compulsory (as the 1962 Constitution already sanctioned). However, there are three types of schools in the country: the Sanskrit language, the English type and the basic teaching one. Sanskrit language schools provide traditional classical teaching and include primary and secondary schools and a university college, which is based in the capital. English-style schools impart a more modern teaching. Primary education lasts for 5 years, starting from 6 years of age; secondary education, which begins at the age of 11, consists of a first cycle of 3 years and a second cycle of 2. According to andyeducation, there is also a university college of letters and sciences and numerous professional schools of different addresses. Finally, the basic teaching schools, inspired by Indian pedagogical experiences, are responsible for spreading a general practical education and fighting the high percentage of illiteracy which still affects a large part of the population (43.5% in 2007). In Nepal there are also some universities, such as 5% in 2007). In Nepal there are also some universities, such as 5% in 2007). In Nepal there are also some universities, such as Tribhuvan University (1959) and Kathmandu University (1991), both in the city of the same name; the Mahendra Sanskrit Viswavidyalaya (1986), with headquarters in Beljhundi; the Purbanchal University (1995); the Pokhara University (1996); and the Kathmandu University School of Management, in Lalitpur.
TERRITORY: MORPHOLOGY
Protected on three sides by very high mountains and to the S by the terai, a flat swampy strip, the country has an approximately rectangular outline with a maximum length from E to W of approx. 850 km and a width from N to S never exceeding 250 km; occupies the central section of the broad southern slope of the Himalayas, between the MahāKālī and Tista rivers; the northern border, defined by the Sino-Nepalese treaty of 1961, mostly follows the steep main watershed, while the southern one is mostly artificial. The 4/5 of the territory are made up of rugged and high mountain ranges, mainly oriented in the WNW-ESE direction, separated by long valleys, and including, in addition to Everest (8848 m), some of the highest peaks in the world such as Kānchenjunga (8603 m), Makālu (8481 m), Dhawalāgiri (8172 m) and Annapūrṇa (8078 m). In Nepal the four main tectonic units of the Himalayas can be recognized: from S to N, the Siwalik area, or Subhimalaya, the Minor Himalaya or Middle Himalaya area, the Great Himalaya area and the Transhimalaya or Tibetan Himalaya area.. The rock formations are extremely varied, from the metamorphic and granite rocks of the crystalline base to the powerful marine sedimentary series, often richly fossil-bearing, of varying ages from the Paleozoic to the Cenozoic era, located in powerful covering layers and affected by complex bending and fractures. The hilly band Siwalik, monotonous succession of lower ridges to 1000 m, separated by wide longitudinal valleys said dun, it is patterned clay deposits, sandy and conglomeratic the Miocene and Pliocene. This is followed by the chains of the Middle Himalayas, whose overall height does not exceed 3000 m: formed by the overthrow of heterogeneous soils ranging in age from the Precambrian to the Cretaceous, with an abundance of metamorphic and granite rocks, they present a harsh and tormented topography, engraved as they are by a myriad of valleys and valleys; However, there are also small basins, including that of Kathmandu. Further on is the mountainous area par excellence, dominated by the enormous rocky pyramids of the highest peaks, massifs formed mainly by powerful schist and sedimentary sheets. Paleozoic and granite intrusions dating back to the Cenozoic: the top part of several of the highest peaks, including Everest, is formed by strips of overlapping blankets overlaid towards the south from Tibet. The northern margin of Nepal has a much less harsh morphology: it is a paleozoic-Mesozoic marine sedimentary series, which rose without significant dislocations starting from the Oligocene up to the current height of approx. 5000 m. The only flat region of Nepal – the extreme edge of the Gangetic plain, about twenty km wide – is located along the southern edge: it is the terai, a tectonic basin filled by river sedimentations and frequently shaken by seismic movements consequent to the settling processes along the band of faults affecting the base. Rich in spring waters and furrowed by numerous rivers, it is an area exposed to floods and still for vast tracts covered by a dense forest mantle of sal (Shorea robusta), but thanks to the disinfestation of the anopheles which has caused the progressive reduction of malaria and to the hydraulic works that have considerably increased the availability of agricultural land, it is becoming the most populated area in Nepal.