School Education Bill yet to be tabled in parliament

KATHMANDU: The School Education Bill, which was approved by the cabinet on August 1, has yet to be tabled in the federal parliament.

Dipak Sharma, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, said that they were awaiting the formal arrival of the Bill from the Council of Ministers to table it in the federal parliament for deliberation.

Minister for Communication and Information Technology Rekha Sharma, who is also the government spokesperson, has already briefed the press that the cabinet has approved the Bill to Amend and Unify Laws Related to School Cector. Cabinet decisions have to be verified by the ministry concerned before they come into implementation.

Stakeholders, however, have managed to obtain the draft from various sources and have subsequently provided their feedback. Bodies representing private and boarding schools in Nepal, such as the Private and Boarding School Organization of Nepal (PABSON), Nepal Private and Boarding School Association of Nepal (N-PABSAN), and Higher Secondary Schools Association of Nepal (HISSAN), have expressed apprehensions regarding the provisions related to private schools in the Bill.

These organizations have submitted a joint memorandum to local units, district administration offices, and Education Development and Coordination Units, calling for a revision of, among others, a provision that requires the conversion of the ownership structure of private schools into a trust-based model within five years.  They also organized a demonstration at the Maitighar Mandala on Thursday to draw the attention of the stakeholders toward their demand.

(With inputs from RSS)