Centered street protests by public school teachers and TU Vice Chancellor's resignation approved  by the Chancellor, the main news that got priority in the media last week.

Kathmandu - The Nepal Teachers Federation (NTF) has submitted a list of 24 demands to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, there was the news. On those demands, the School Education Act should be issued as soon as possible to address previous agreements made with the government; All types of temporary teacher positions should be maintained and working teachers made permanent through internal competition; There should be a provision for periodic promotion of teachers; The positions of school employees should be fixed and made permanent; Teachers' salaries and grades should be higher than those of civil servants are among them, quoted the news.

Prime Minister KP Oli held discussions with the Ministers of Finance, Home, Education, the Chief Secretary, and Education Secretary regarding the teachers' demands pertaining to their current, there was the news. The news reported that the NTF has been demonstrating on the streets every day. Oli said that the protesting teachers are only looking out for their own interests and that this will not provide a solution, the news quoted. Nepali Congress said that the party is serious about addressing teachers' demands and CPN (Maoist Center) expressed solidarity with teachers' movement, mentioned the news.

Although the Education and Human Resource Development Center has planned the admission campaign for the new academic session starting from mid of April, 2025 and sent a task plan to the Ministry of Education, there was the news that the campaign will be affected as the main implementers of the plan, teachers, are on street protests.

The NTF's directive to teachers not to check the answer sheets of the SEE has affected the examining of the answer sheets. The National Examination Board has urged the protesting teachers to help in the examining of answer sheets and the conduct and management of the Grade 12 examination, the news published.

The Kantipur's Editorial on the teachers' movement states that the problem arose because the government had previously made an impossible agreement with the aim of suspending the movement.

Bhuvaneshwar Sharma wrote a Letter to Editor in the Kantipur, stating that the intensification of the teachers' movement is worrying.

Private school operators' associations PABSON and NPABSON have also expressed solidarity with the movement of protest without school closures, published the report.

In a statement issued by Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Joint General Secretary Sumana Shrestha, mentioned that there are four issues that are crucial in making the School Education Act. Defining quality of education, to clarify whether school education is a place to make profit or not, unconstitutional agreements and ongoing partisan politics in the education sector, are the major problems made it difficult to draft the Act, the statement said.

In general, parental interest in public schools is on decline. The teachers' strike at the beginning of the academic session is causing further damage to public schools. In such a situation, which parent would like to enroll their children to a public school? To controlfurther damage, the government needs to take immediate initiative to create the necessary environment for teachers to return to school immediately, without affecting to draft School Education Act.

Even if there can be many disagrements with other things what Premier Oli says, it is true that teachers have look out for their own interests alone. Right now, the government has not spoken out clearly to teachers. Teachers appear to be striving to get their demands met by portraying themselves as innocent victims. Probably, besides this portal, others are  calling to "negotiate" and "bring the teacher back to the classroom" without discussing what demands are legitimate and where government has failed.  Those making vague statements range from umbrella organizations of educational civil society to umbrella organizations of for-profit private schools.

There may be accusations of favoring the establishment, but as the chairperson of the concerned parliamentary committee said, it is unacceptable to make someone permanent without an open competition for scrutiny, not to be updated in certain intervals, and  be affiliated with a party. A senior government official, who did not want to be named, said the teachers  expect to be treated like civil servants but the temporary tenure of any government employee would not be added to the permanent tenure. He further added, of course, there is no problem in keeping them one level above civil servants! Another top official, said 'relief is relief'. The Federal Government can transfer these positions to the municipalities and let them manage. But, both of them said 'we are supposed not to  utter a word of truth.

However, let us not forget the civil servants are always in agreement with the teachers if their interests are met. In particular, the 51-point agreement of 2022 AD shows an impressive presence of the civil servants. By encouraging the teachers, the civil servants pushed the agenda for continuing the District Education Office for example. The then Minister of Education must be pointed for sending half-baked bill to please both the civil servants and the teachers  consequences of which the whole nation is suffering today.

What this scenario suggests that the agreements reached by the government at the staff and ministerial levels were immature. In this column before, it has been suggested that the relevant units of the Parliament be represented during the talks. Given the current situation, one way to ensure the agreements implementable is the involvement of the civil society in the education sector to or at least observe the negotiations between the state Executive, Legislature and the agitating teachers so that they can be witness for its implementation or its failure. If that happens,  it will be apparent upfront if the demands are worthy and likely to be met.

The government of a certain Party or a coalition may not literally take ownership of the agreements made when another party or coalition was in power. The government did take ownership of the Report of the High Level Education Commission when the same person from the same party was the Prime Minister to form the Commission and publish the report. It  is not logical enough to ask the government to take responsibility to address their demands in the Bill which is under the discussion in the Parliament. The problem is compounded by the fact that political parties and their leaders have made agreements and compromises that were not to be fulfilled other than appeasing the teachers and evade the immediate agitations. 

So far, not a single teacher and teachers' organizations have taken responsibility, individually or collectively for the poor state of education. There are no offers or promises what will be different if the demands were fulfilled. If private schools had been closed for so many days, there would be havoc in the country as we have experienced already in the past. The country cannot afford the investment in teachers as so far it has not yielded comparable returns. We have witnessed that no one cared while public schools were closed for months in many municipalities in Madhesh. The children of the people who can speak about the closure of schools are in private schools. Teachers, who have repeatedly making unconstitutional demand that they do not like to be governed by Municipalities, have turned a blind eye to the issues of the anomalies created by the private schools. Prevailing such an  attitude, there will be no public education or teachers in the future. In that sense, this ongoing dispute is only for the convenience of the current generation of teachers. 

There is no disagreement that teachers should receive due perks and respect. However, demanding an unsustainable privilege without assurance of results is a moral exploitation or blackmail. A local social worker rightly said, "The current salary is too little for teachers who teach and too much for those who don't!" The same is true of benefits. As teachers try to bring the government to its knees, the government should not take the attitude of discrediting teachers. It is important for both parties to try to normalize the situation as smoothly as possible. One can expect the teachers as the intellectuals in the field of education can mediate and facilitate to normalize the process. 

There was news that the Subcommittee of the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee of the Parliament has reached to a consensus up to 38 Clauses of the School Education Bill in the meantime.

Although textbooks have reached to the municipalities for the new academic session, the teachers' movement has prevented textbooks from reaching to schools. According to the news, Janak Education Materials Center has printed 17.05 million textbooks for the school level, and the Central and its provincial offices have arranged for their sales and distribution as planned.

There was the news that the necessary new textbooks have arrived in the local bodies of Sankhuwa Sabha, Jumla, and Darchula districts while new textbooks have not reached to most schools in Karnali due to the local levels not disbursing funds in time.

Tribhuvan University (TU) Chancellor KP Oli has approved the resignation of Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof. Dr. Keshar Jung Baral, there was the news. The news reports mention that Prof. Baral had to resign for undue to pressure regarding the management of contractual employees and professors, the issue of TU cricket ground, the university's financial management, and the FSU elections, the news mentioned.

The Kantipur reported that daily administrative work at TU has come to a standstill after Dr Baral resigned. The TU Act stipulates that the Rector can take the role of the Acting VC up to 3 months in the absence of the VC, quoted the news. An editorial in Kantipur states that the resignation of the VC, who had risen hopes through efforts to reform TU; he had to resign due to political pressures, has disappointed again.

The committee has started visiting campuses to find out whether professors and employees who went on a study leave from TU have returned, the news published.

There was report that Prof. Dr. Indra Prasad Tiwari has been appointed as the Chancellor of the Gandaki University.

The closure of the USAID-supported Early Grade Learning project in Class 1 to 3 in the Far-Western Province has affected 38 local levels and 138 employees working on the project have lost their jobs, the news quoted.

Resident doctors of private medical colleges have launched a protest, saying that the decision of the 16th meeting of the Medical Education Commission on 7 February 2025 to provide a subsistence allowance equivalent to the eighth level of government employees to resident doctors studying in private medical colleges has not been implemented, there was news.

There was report that Chepang mother-parents from Benighat Rorang Rural Municipality (RM) in Dhading are visiting schools to get information and motivate their children's studies.

A whooping amount of 89 billion rupees (around USD 650 milliom) is transferred abroad in 8 months (from July 2024 to March 2025) for studies by Nepali students, quoted the news.

There was the news that student organization affiliated to the Maoist Centre has started a hunger strike at Kathmandu University Central Campus, demanding that the elections for the Student Welfare Council (similar to the Free Students Union) be held through a direct system.

Nurses working in 61 schools in remote areas of Bagmati Province have quit their jobs. The news mentioned that nurses working in schools have contributed to the regularization of girl students to schools.

Kathmandu Metropolitan City has installed 313 'smart boards' in schools as part of a program to improve outcomes by increasing investment in teaching and learning activities, quoted the news. Kathmandu Metropolis has made the results of grade eight public. The results indicate the number of students who received various grades and the number of non-graded students by subject, the news mentioned. The highest number of students who were non-graded are in mathematics, followed by social and human values, and thirdly in the science.

Although Bungal Municipality of Bajhang merged and downgraded* public schools within the municipality last April, claiming to improve the quality of education, the inability to relocate teacher's positions has led to problems in student learning, there was the news. According to the news, it was decided to integrate 13 schools and downgrade 11 schools.

* Meaning that the number of grades to be taught reduced – from 8 to 5 for example. (Ed.)

27 children from Chauri Goth in Tembathan, Jugal RM, Sindhupalchowk, are studying in the school after they were provided with residential facilities, reported the news.

The Ministry of Education's High-Level Teacher Recruitment Review Task Force has suggested that schools with low student enrollment be maintained, even if it means downgrading them, saying that closing or merging schools could empty out the remaining settlements in the Hills and Mountainous regions, the news published. It is suggested that it would be appropriate to save the school even by adopting the multi-grade multi-level (a method where a single teacher teaches students in multiple classes) method, quoted the news.

Ramesh Prasad Gautam wrote an article in Gorkhapatra stating that the foundation of learning is elementary education and a strong foundation will make a strong home.

Purpose of this news review is to classify and synthesize the educational content of the week and provide objective comments from the point of view of social justice and creative pedagogy including the environment. It is aimed to the policy makers and stakeholders to help make informed decisions. In this joint effort of the Center for Educational Policies and Practices (CEPP) and EduKhabar, material from daily newspapers - Kantipur, Gorkhapatra and The Himalayan Times, online news portals - Online Khabar, Setopati and Ratopati and the 8 o'clock news of Nepal Television and 7 o'clock news of Himalaya Television is summarized and presented with commentary on relevant issues. We have covered the contents from 5-11 April 2025 in this issue - The Editor.

Read last week's analysis in Nepali : उता शैक्षिक सत्र शुरु, यता शिक्षक सडकमा

Also watch the video (Nepali) with the commentary about the teachers' protest : शिक्षक आन्दोलन : एक भिडियो टिप्पणी

Read last week's content : Last week in education