Kathmandu - This week finally the government took ground action against the private medical colleges that were denying the return of illegally raised fees from students as Department of Money Laundering Investigation raided three medical colleges this week. A very thoughtful opinion article this week discussed the position of education between work or labor and human capacity to creation and creativity from the Marxian perspective, challenging the relevance of the present education systems to its intentions. One of the implications of the new education policy would more than double the salary of the teachers of Early Child Development Classes. A news story informed that the Ward Chair of Ward no. 4 of Siddhakumakh Rural Municipality from Mustang chose to quite his position to pursue a rather stable profession of a permanent school teacher.

-    Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has put on hold appointment of teachers at community schools. It has requested local bodies to put on hold the process of transferring and appointing teachers. Local bodies were not allowed to appoint or transfer community school teachers. The process fell under jurisdiction of the Teachers’ Service Commission, joint secretary at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology had reported. He was quote to state “Quality of teachers should be examined before appointing them. They should possess teaching licences and should pass examination conducted by the commission”.

-    Tribhuvan University, the oldest and largest educational institution of the country, had called for applications from its graduates to participate in its 45th Convocation Ceremony. With the TU switching to online system to call applications for convocation since last year, the number of applicants has increased. According to the Convocation Main Celebration Committee member Secretary, this year as many as 10,178 graduates have applied to participate in the convocation ceremony. Though TU produces highest number of graduates annually, its has been criticised for compromising with quality of education.

This positive new about digitizing some procedure in TU was a rare positive comment after a very long time. In recent times, higher education are being covered in media only for bad reasons for too long.

-    Medical colleges were finally raided this week. Department of Money Laundering Investigation raided three medical colleges. DMLI raided Nobel Medical College, Biratnagar, National Medical College, Birgunj, and Chitwan Medical College, Chitwan. DMLI took the action acting on a report of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and National Vigilance Centre.“The department has started investigation against the medical colleges for collecting extra fee. The medical colleges have not been providing information as demanded. Therefore, these colleges were raided,” a source was quoted on the condition of anonymity. “Colleges which have been collecting extra fee from students will be punished. A fraud case will be filed against them by mid-December,” the source added. Department of Money Laundering Investigation raided three medical colleges today.. DMLI took the action acting on a report of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and National Vigilance Centre. “The department has started investigation against the medical colleges for collecting extra fee. The medical colleges have been ignoring to provide information as demanded. Therefore, these colleges were raided,” said a source on the condition of anonymity. “The medical colleges which have been collecting extra fee from students will be punished as per the law. A fraud case will be filed against such medical colleges by mid-December,” the source added.

Another article reported that the relatives of the operators of the private medical institutions will also be investigated. A different article has reported that the Medical College of Army was also taking extra fees from students and have been threatening to get extra money out of students. 

-    A very thought opinion article titled ‘Failing education system: A Marxian paradigm’ was published this week stating that our education system, instead of preparing students for the growing complexities of the world, prepares them for a 2-3-hour edgy test, where mugged-up facts are the basis for the paper’s validity rather than the understanding of the students.It further explained that Marx showed how labour and human potential are intertwined and how labour defines, transforms and helps realise our human potential. It stated that capitalism comes in between this relationship of labour and human potential. Describing his societal context of the suppressed proletariat and the suppressing bourgeoisie, Marx claimed that capitalism alienates workers from productive activity of objectification of their own ideas by making them spend their labour producing goods that are not of their own imagination but those of the capitalists’. The article questioned: Are students being exploited by an exploiting education system that shares its nature with the exploiting political economic system that existed in the 19th century ?

The opinion article discussed the position of education between work or labor and human capacity to creation and creativity from the Marxian perspective, challenging the relevance of the present education systems to its intentions. This was a rare piece in media that dealt with the core purpose of education and discussed the reform of education from the perspective of its role in the new political understanding of the purpose of being of the citizens and the state.

'Education this Week' is a joint effort put to analyze the press coverage of education in Nepal’s selected print media published in Kathmandu. The main aim of this effort is to identify and explain major education issues picked up by the media and give back and foreground of the news. This, we believe, will help policy makers and other responsible people to keep abreast with ongoing concerns and discussions on and around education. EduKhabar, in collaboration with the Center for Educational Policies and Practices (CEPP) , has produced this analysis based on the news printed in Kantipur (Nepali) and The Himalayan Times (English), Dailies and Himal Weekly(Nepali) between Nov 13-19, 2019 (Kartik 27-Mansir 3, 2076) - Editor.

Read this analysis in Nepali :  निजी मेडिकल कलेजको ठगी र नयाँ शिक्षा नीति

Read last week’s analysis : Hunger strike and New Education Policy

All analysis read by this link : Education This week