Nepal: Protests demanding endorsement of School Education Bill continue

Kathmandu, April 20 (IANS) Nepal Teachers' Federation continued their protest on Sunday in Kathmandu demanding endorsement of the School Education bill, local media reported.

The federation decided not to withdraw the protest despite recent assurances from Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and Speaker of the House of Representatives of Nepal, Devraj Ghimire.

Recently, the Nepal government agreed to address the demand of protesting teachers in the country as they decided to summon a parliamentary session on April 25 to pass the School Education Bill, according to a report by the leading Nepali daily, The Kathmandu Post.

PM Oli on Friday held a meeting with office-bearers of the Confederation of Nepalese Teachers (CNT) to explore solutions to the ongoing teachers' agitation centered in Kathmandu.

He urged the teachers' representatives to withdraw their agitation and assured them that the government would make maximum effort to address their demands.

"The House session was called early to discuss the bill. However, I cannot give the exact day of its endorsement as it is the legislature which decides," Oli was quoted as saying by a participant in the meeting.

Later on Friday evening, speaker Ghimire met the teachers and assured them that he was ready to put the bill to a vote in a fast-track process.

"The Speaker said he was ready to put the bill to a vote the very next day it is tabled in the House of Representatives," said Nanu Maya Parajuli, co-chair of the federation and coordinator of the struggle committee.

However, the federation decided not to withdraw the protest, though they termed the meetings with Oli and Ghimire as positive.

"Though the meetings with the Prime Minister and the Speaker were positive, we have decided to continue the symbolic protest on Sunday. We will sit on Sunday to decide what to do in the days to come," said Parajuli.

Thousands of teachers continued the agitation as usual on Saturday afternoon and decided to continue with the protest for a few hours on Sunday.

"Our protest is not against the government. We are fighting only for the new Act," Parajuli added.

Further, the teachers accused the bureaucrats of Nepal of providing the wrong briefing to the Prime Minister and ministers for the delay in addressing their demands.

"The bureaucracy wrongly reported that it would cost Rs 200 billion to address our demands. In reality, the cost won't exceed Rs 13 billion. We can find a solution to the current problem overnight if everyone works with the right intent," said an office bearer of the federation.

Reports suggest that the teacher's demonstrations and sit-ins in the Maitighar-Naya Baneshwor area of Kathmandu since April 2 have severely disrupted the national enrollment drive and delayed key academic tasks, such as evaluating answer sheets from the recently held Secondary Education Examination (SEE).

The teachers defied the government's instruction to begin student enrollment for the new academic year in Nepal, which started on April 15.

Earlier this week, the National Human Rights Commission of Nepal expressed serious concern over the ongoing protest and urged the concerned parties to resolve the matter through dialogue.

--IANS

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