Kathmandu - This week, the issue that received the most news and letters were about Dr. Govinda KC’s plan for a hunger strike calling for access to medical education in rural parts of Nepal. As Dr. KC begins to plan for a hunger strike, the issue has already started receiving attention. In previous years, his activism has made medical education among the most covered issues in the entire year’s education coverage in the media.

The media reported that Dr. Govinda KC, a senior orthopedic surgeonand a medical education reform campaigner in Jumla, who was preparing to begin a hunger strike last week (Thursday), has postponed his Satyagraha(non-violent resistance that may include fast on to death) for a week as per the request of CDO and head of the police. It further added that he has been demanding the reformation in medical education and implementation of agreement of amendment of Medical Education Act made with the Government.

Although new stories related to politics gave volume to the news, identical news and articleson political decisions made by the Government during this pandemic were dominantly carried by the different media. The abduction of a headmaster of Bhimsen Basic School while he was distributing scholarships in Tinpatan Rural Municipality-8, in Sindhuli district by Biplab group(extremist dissident fraction of the Maoists) was reportedfrequentlyin the different media. It stated, locals and police have rescued the abducted headteacher after three hours and cadres involved in the incident were arrested with bombs.

The cabinet has decided to resume issuing 'No Objection Letter' required for students going abroad to study on the media reported. However, a student from Janakpur lost his US scholarship because of the delay for the letter was also reported. 

The news reported that the Cabinet has also decided to allow foreign students to come Nepal to study in educational institutions. The news further stated that they will be able to come to Nepal on the basis of application or proof of enrollment to study in an educational institution in Nepal. However, they do need a PCR certificate from their home country.
The media reported that the Federation of Private Technical Education and NSU have objected to the government's cancellation of 18-month health training programs run by the CTEVT.Nomore students for ANM / CMA / Lab Assistant and other programs are to be admitted. As reported by the media the Medical Education Commission on August 14 made a decision to this affect. The Commission also decided to allow the Karnali Institute of Health Sciences to run MDGP, Anesthesiology and Pediatricscourses in medical science according to the media.

Figure 1: A man has died in the quaritine of Karfok Vidya Mandir Secondary School in Suryiday Municipality of Ilam District. Setopati_1 Sep 2020. More than 2000 schools are used as quarantine centres of the country. While it’s a good idea to make use of stable school buildings for emergencies, use of schools for such a pandemic raises concerned if they can be used as refuge for emergency all the time. 

Discussion on inclusion and access was also widely reported in the different media. A headline reported that, more than two-thirds, or more than 5.4 million school children of Nepal are deprived of distance learning during their school closures, the UNICEF stated in a report on Friday.  An article also stated that the students who have been deprived of learning will look back to this time to recall how the government failed education in the name of the pandemic. The article also raisedgrowing concern among parents for children losing interest in education.

Another headline also reported that, UGC has allocated 67.5 million to teach poor students online. Although budget has been allocated to provide access to online education to needy students, students have been deprived of access as universities failing to locate their students.The news reported that TU requested students to contact their respective departments/ campuses to participate in online classes and even requested political leaders to help locate and identify the students. 

The media also reported that Kathmandu University has turned back from its decision requiring students of the School of Science and the School of Engineering to pay the tuition fees and has deferred the date to September 30.

However, during this emergency situation in education, the RPP-affiliated National Democratic Students' Organization (NDSO) was reported busy protesting against the killing of a priest in Rautahat district and the NCP-affiliated ANNFSU was reported busy with their internal conflict as their dispute rife on social media.It appears that repulse of the dispute in the mother party has come to its student wing. There was the news on the front page about political appointmentsin TU without any criteria as if it was a preparation to make TU a 'Red Fort'.

Similarly,there were news about exams in the media: the Mid-western University is conducting its postponed mid-term examinations of Bachelor's and Master's levels online from 8 AM on Friday as per its alternate exam modality developed by the University; TU is preparing to conduct its postponed examination programs after the Dashain;Purbanchal University has decided to take exams from Mid-September by 'Time Bound Home Exam'system and KU is preparing to conduct examination through alternative means, the news was also reported. In the case of schools, the media also reported that the NEB, through the MoEST, has written to the Covid-19 Crisis Management Center (CCMC) seeking permission to conduct the examination before Dashain.

Other news of the week are: Beni Community Secondary School in Myagdi appointed teachers with an non-transparent system under a 'setting' of the concerned; An Appcreated by a student from Chitwan has become useful for medical students all over the world; Blogs raised critical situation of private school teachers in contemporary context for not getting paid; Good deed done by Namobuddha Municipality Mayor sponsoring education up to Bachelors of a teenager who was just free from corona infection;increment of child marriage due to school closures; Police arresting 11 people, including the headmaster, while gambling at a private school in Chitwan.

The news reported that the MoEST has opened the way for private schools to charge fees with the approval of concerned Municipalities. This has been a contested issue for long resisted by the operators of the private schools. It did not draw attention as it should this week. 

The trend this week in education shows government is not being able to ensure the access of millions of school children in education which has increased the risk of losing not only academic year but also the risk of students not going to school ever again. This week analysis also shows mental effect on child from the stress of isolation and increase in child marriage as a consequence of the shutdown of the school in this pandemic. Whereas, looking thetrend of past two weeks, exam was only the news feast for the media. It is unfortunate that debate on the uncertain future of disqualified 26,000 SEE students were not followed upin the media.

'Education this Week' is a joint effort to analyze the press coverage of education in Nepal’s selected print media published in Kathmandu. This week, reports included online portals SetoPati, NayaPatrika and My Republica. 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 online news portal SetoPati, NayaPatrika and My Republica between26 August- 1 September, 2020 (10-16 Bhadra, 2077) - Editor.

Read this analysis in Nepali : कोभिडमै केन्द्रित साता