Kathmandu - 825 teachers are reported to have left the political party positions as MoEST tightened its grip to implement the legal provision of prohibiting public school teachers from joining political parties. After Education Minister Sumana Shrestha gave priority to the implementation of the said law, there was news that the teachers involved in the party started leaving the party.

Last week's media quoted the Minister Shrestha in a press conference announcing the progress of the 100-day work, vowing to stop the party politics in the education sector until her last breath !

Twenty teachers became full-time party workers leaving the teaching profession and, while complaints were filed against 45 teachers for not resigning as members of the party, the news stated. They are being investigated further, mentioned the news. 

According to the Gorkhapatra Daily, the chairmen and presidents of the related parties confirmed that the teachers affiliated to various parties in Urlabari, Pathari Shanischare and Kanepokhari of Morang have resigned. According to the news, 37 members of the Nepali Congress and 93 members of the CPN (UML) have resigned from party..

In sub-section 2 of section 14 of the Act relating to Political Parties, it states that 'teachers on tenure cannot be made members'. Similarly, the Education Act, (Amendment 2076) prohibits the teachers to hold executive position of a party.

There was also news that the decision of MoEST to call back the teachers from secondment in places other than in their designated school is being implemented.

Minister Shrestha has informed that 291 teachers have been found to be on the job other than their designated schools and 54 teachers have already been instated back. Fifty-nine people who are working in other posts have been asked for an explanation, mentioned the news. 

The Ministry decided the teachers who were posted in the school other than the designated ones to call back to their respective positions. It was mentioned in the news that the decision calling them to return to their respective locations was made because there was a shortage of teachers in schools while the teachers were working elsewhere and the learning of students was being affected.

Since more than $30 million is spent on new textbooks every year, the MoEST has been considering the issue of reusing school textbooks as a priority!

This is a welcome move! It was just an example of following whatever somebody says without giving adequate thought on the matter. Children should be taught to protect and maintain books well while it also increased the cost of education for no sufficient and good enough reason. If possible, there should be some positive incentive to keep the books re-saleable and penalty for not keeping text books well enough! Free textbook is a blind copy of rich industrial countries who have no regard for resources simply because they can afford it - by countries such as Nepal. It is the same with fees – the rich countries who have large tax paying population can relate free education with taxes. In countries like Nepal where there is small tax paying population cannot relate free education and state welfare. They think it’s free and thus of little value given to the poor people. Further, not the whole population is incapable of paying school fees. There is a need for targeted free-ship rather than blanket-free ship. Our bureaucracy and leaders could not present the situation to the world and their needs and just felt good for signing free education bid without giving more resources to schools. This dilapidated public schools giving rise to for-profit private schools. Hope that one day, planners and politicians come to this realization like in the case of textbooks. Many know, the drive to printing large volume of text books is also driven by personal gains to the files and ranks of the authority. Finally, it has dawned to some – thanks to the new Minister 

The National Examination Board (NEB) Examination Control Office Class 10 has released the annual schedule for the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) for the academic session 2081. According to the news, SEE will be held at from 20 March 2025. According to the news, NEB will implement the requirement to get a minimum of 35 percent in SEE scores this time on. Similarly, theoretical and internal evaluation will be different. According to the news, the students must get a minimum of 35 percent marks in each subject on theoretical side (out of 75 marks) and 40 percent marks in the internal examination out of 25 marks. If the minimum marks are not obtained, the certificate will be marked as 'non-graded'.
There was news that 11 students studying at Pulchok Engineering Campus will be given minimum wages while doing internships in various companies.

It is mentioned in the news that UNICEF and the European Union have partnered with Social Awareness Centre (SAC) Nepal to implement the School Education Sector Plan (SESP) Implementation Support Project at 22 local levels in Karnali Province.

Such a case is getting rare. Government bureaucracy is grossly incapable of social mobilization – both by training and their nature. NGOs have continually been undermined for these kind of jobs while even worse NGO can raise awareness better at peoples’ level than any other entities – even better than political parties. One day, government at all levels will realize that creating provisions to mobilize NGOs on a competitive basis raises the level of change that needs getting critical info to the grassroots. 

Marchawar Secondary School located in Kotahimai Majhganwa of Rupandehi has leased a bus purchased from the government budget out to Buddha Innovative Research and Technical Institute Pvt. Ltd., news published. There was news in Setopati online that the bus purchased by the school in February 2022 under a grant of the Lumbini Province Government and the school's bus was leased to a private organization.

After students decreasing at the Himalayan Basic School in Bharatpur Metropolitan City-11 was listed for closure three years ago. With forming new School Management Committee (SMC) which took the active role to reform the school, 279 students have been enrolled to study up to class 8.
There was news in Setopati that despite the phase out of Science Inter level (ISc), Kaviraj (Ayurveda Inter Level) and Sanskrit Inter Level (IA) taught at Nepal Janata Vidyapeeth, Bijauri under Nepal Sanskrit University, 6 teachers are still receiving their salaries regularly. It was reported that Nepal Sanskrit University spends 370 K rupees per month for these 6 teachers.

Manoj Kumar Sharma of Siraha wrote a letter to the editor in Kantipur alleging that public education has declined because the government does not take serious interest in community schools.

Pro. Dr. Manprasad Wagle suggested to the Education Minister in a letter to the editor, who claimed that people can do something meaningful by staying the country; our public schools have the capacity to do so; our schools can create skilled manpower from our children, if the ideas are implement to her own remarks. 

In an article written by Peshal Khanal and Prem Phyak in Kantipur, they discussed the role of teacher management. Even though the local government got the right to school education after becoming a federal country, the selection and appointment of teachers was centralized, and a contradiction was created in teacher management, argued the article. The article mentions that as soon as a teacher appointed permanently in a remote school, most of the teachers try to go to a adequate and well-equipped schools; 

they say as long as the facilities in accessible and remote schools remains the same, this problem will naturally remain, mentioned the article.
 A Solution presented by them is to provide better facilities (salary, promotion, etc.) in remote schools than in the schools in accessible areas. Likewise, the article argues that opportunities for professional development of teachers will help teachers stick to a school. It is pointed out in the article that the teachers who are in government-approved posts get regular and full salaries (even if they teach the same or even less), while the facilities of teachers appointed from local and private sources differ from school to school.

In her article written in Kantipur, Samjhana Sharma contrasted the pre-primary classes conducted by private schools and the child development classes by public schools. She has compared the pre-primary classes of private and public schools in the article without considering the reasons why private schools make pre-primary classes 4 years that harms children for sending children schools too early.

The 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 padagogy to the policy makers and stakeholders in one place. In this joint effort of Center for Education Policy and Practice (CEPP) and Edukhbar, the news of daily newspapers Kantipur, Gorkhapatra and The Himalayan Times, online news portals Online Khabar, Setopati and Ratopati and Himalaya TV and Nepal Television from 15-21June 2024 are covered - Editor.

Read last week's content : Last week in education 

Read it in Nepali :  शिक्षामन्त्रीको कार्यसम्पादनको प्रभाव