Kathmandu - This week the reopening of schools and a sense of insecurity among students and parents was reported in the media. As the Cabinet meeting held on October 8 decided that the Municipals with no risk of COVID infection can reopen schools  by following Health Safety Standards, the MoEST has made preparations to reopen schools in areas where there is no COVID cases after Tihar (Festival of Light), reported the media. MoEST spokesperson stated that they will complete the 'School Reopening Framework' before Tihar.

This decision led Municipals to reopen the school prior to the completion of 'School Reopening Framework'. Dhangadi Sub-Metropolis, Kailali district and Birgunj Metropolis, Parsa district has reopened all community schools in the area, stated the news. Conflict between DAO and Municipalities in Dolpa district was reported as Municipalities disobeyed the instruction of DAO to not to open the school. Schools of three RM in Upper Dolpa district taking annual examinations early as usual before November due to unbearable weather in winter was also reported.

News about grade 11 and 12 examinations was among most followed education news. As grade 11 annual examinations is being conducted under respective schools throughout the country, the schools of Lamjung district are preparing to conduct grade 11 examination as per the annual examination operation, management, evaluation, publication of results and verification procedure, 2077. Whereas, examination of grade 11 at Shivajan Secondary School in Sheetalpati, Sarada Municipality-1 of Salyan district was postponed due to spread of COVID in locality, reported in the media. 

In the context of grade 12, the Minister of Education was reported instructing the NEB officials to ensure that the students meet the health criteria and include students in examination wherever they are.

TU has also made necessary arrangements for students to take their examinations from exam centers convenient to them, the news reported. The University has asked students to choose an exam center by visiting the website of TU Office of the Controller of Examinations.

Conflict between private school operators and parents was followed by the media this week as well. Parents agitated saying that private schools are taking over as the Municipals of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur were unable to fix the school fees.

Picture: The Mayor of Chitwan Metropolitan City had awarded cycles to female students to ensure better access to school and education. It was a pictorial report. KD_Nov10_2020

APF barracks at school after students were chased away made on the front page of the news. The Brahmapuri RM of Sarlahi handed over the school to APF to build Border Out-Post and students were left stranded when the APF paraded the school with barbed wire, reported the news. 

Bhagwata Aryal had filed a writ petition in Supreme Court on October 14 claiming that the CDC had prepared a curriculum draft on the single list of local level and jurisdiction of local government in Schedule 8 of the constitution, the news reported. Writ has also demanded that mathematics should be given priority in the format. Hearing the writ petition, a bench of Supreme Court Judge Purushottam Bhandari had issued a short-term interim order not to implement the National Curriculum for School Education, 2076 (eight months after implementation) and to keep it as it is. 

Inaugurating the courses on tourism and mountaineering in the Narayani Secondary School at Maiwakhola RM in Taplejung district, Minister for CTC was reported stating that the academic courses on tourism and mountaineering to be conducted at various places soon. He also inaugurated the ICT laboratory of Siva Secondary School in the Taplejung.

Minister for Education was reported underscoring the need to make optimum use of science and technology and link education with skill and productivity in the discussion held by CEPP Secretariat on 'Education in Madhesh'. Minister viewed that the role of teachers was more important to provide quality education to students and urged them to be active and solely focused on teaching- learning activities. He spoke of the need to launch a campaign for bringing education to the reach of all people in Madhesh.

Students of KU were reported staging relay hunger strike after the KU which conducted online classes during the lockdown, demanded fees as if they were teaching in the classroom. NSU was also reported requesting KU to fulfill the demands of students. Dean of School of Engineering stated that the decisions will be made soon as the demands of students have already been sent to the University Administrative Board.

The regular work of the Medical Education Commission, formed to end the distortions and inconsistencies in medical education was reported has come to a standstill. Furthermore, eleven cases have been registered in the Supreme Court against the commission. Some of them are related to medical education and some with policy and qualifications of member. There was also the news reported on 115 officials of Janaki Medical College, Dhanusha district staging protest from one month and hunger strike by 2 officials since a week demanding their salaries, allowances and re-appointment of officials who were fired shows the distortions and inconsistencies in Medical Education. The headline in the media also reported that the Dr. KC has accused the top leaders of the political parties doing business with the mafia in the education and health sectors. He also questioned the stage of implementation of the agreement reached with him during the 19th hunger strike.

Other news of the week are: The Government revokes its decision to impose customs tax on import of books; Australia reopening soon for the students and tourist; India's National Defence College to add more seats for Nepal and Bangladesh; CTEVT helping people acquire skills needed for the market by organizing social media campaign during lockdown; A motivational story of a 19 years student named Kisankumar Shah of Janakpurdham Sub-Metropolis-10 Janakpur district tutoring 40 Musahar and Dalit children; An op-ed stated the need of urgent reformation in TU; TU gave one-day mourning leave on the demise of Dr. Ramman Shrestha, former education head of TU; The building of Shree Laxminiya Janata Secondary School in Dhanusha district constructed with the financial assistance of the Indian Government under 'Nepal-India Development Cooperation' programme; Nepal and Demark will continue to enhance cooperation in culture, education and people to people contacts.

'Education this Week' is a joint effort to analyze the press coverage of education in Nepal’s selected print and online 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 between 4-10 November, 2020 (19-25 Kartik, 2077) - Editor.

Read this analysis in Nepali : विद्यालय पुनः सञ्चालन : विद्यार्थी र अभिभावक बीच असुरक्षाको अनुभूति