Agency and structure have a symbiotic relationship. As agency is not created in a vacuum, an analysis of structure sheds light on understanding a person’s agency better. Drawing on the capability approach and employing concepts from Bourdieu, such as habitus, and forms of capital and field, this study explored the capabilities, functioning and obstacles of marginalised students in the mountainous region of rural Nepal and Kathmandu. Within a broader context of a teacher training programme, teachers’ and education development officers’ perspectives of students’ capabilities were compared with students’ own perceptions of their capabilities.

The influence of Western, rights-based neoliberal policies are problematic in Nepal as they do not relate to the unique cultural set-up of Nepal. While this problem has received significant attention in the literature, there is little empirical research of whether marginalised primary and secondary school students’ capabilities are enhanced or diminished by trained teachers in Nepal. That was the focus of this study. A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with primary and secondary school students, teachers and education development officers. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. The study found that students taught by trained teachers did not experience a learner-centred education.

Students’ social, economic and cultural capital played a role in how their teachers perceived them and how students perceived their teachers. The study highlighted the need for teacher training programmes in Nepal to be robust and train teachers to reflect on their habitus and worldview. This would enable them to understand caste-based discrimination and to intervene in school-based corporal punishment. It was recommended that further empirical studies be conducted in different regions of Nepal to highlight the factors that enhance students’ capabilities and can inform educational policy in Nepal.