The enthusiasm of students studying at private schools has virtually died away as the indefinite educational strike takes place right in the beginning of a new academic year. Around 1.5 million students study at some 8,000 private schools throughout the country, says Private And Boarding Schools´ Organization of Nepal (PABSON). [break]
All Nepal National Independent Students´ Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) has called an indefinite strike from Sunday opposing the fee hike decisions at all private schools. The district-level Fees Determining and Monitoring Committees (FDMCs) had recently recommended private schools to increase tuition fees by an average of 25 per cent.
ANNISU-R has vowed to continue with the strike unless FDMCs roll back their decisions. "FDMCs have unilaterally decided to hike fees," Jagrit Chhetri, vice president, ANNISU-R, told myrepublica.com. "We will not give in so long as FDMCs stick to their fee hike decision."
ANNISU-R has criticized the government for not ensuring students´ participation in FDMCs. As per the Education Act (1971), FDMCs consist of District Education Officers (DEOs), owners of private schools, and guardians. "We do not respect the decision of the fee-determining committees that do not have students´ representation," Chhetri said. "Moreover, there is no guarantee that FDMCs include genuine guardians."
Earlier, ANNISU-R had padlocked accounts sections at all private schools from April 19. "Neither PABSON nor the government took us seriously even as we padlocked accounts sections at all schools," Chhetri told myrepublica.com. "So, we shut schools to press our demand." On April 23, ANNISU-R had threatened the close down the schools.
"All schools have been forcibly shut," Bijay Sambahamphe, general secretary, PABSON, told myrepublica.com. "Even a few schools that opened Sunday defying the call were ransacked." He criticized the government for not taking any initiatives to open the schools. "The fee hike decision is not ours," he said. "It was taken by government-regulated committees. So, it is inappropriate to target just schools."
Principals thrashed
According to our correspondent Dil Bahadur Chhatyal, ANNISU-R supporters vandalized the model community school in the farwestern region and thrashed its principal Sunday. A group of irate students stormed Aishwarya Vidya Niketan at around 8:30 in the morning and beat up principal Dharma Dev Bhatta´s office and vandalized tables, sofa, chairs and trophies. They then came out of the office and showered kicks and punches on Bhatta, who was on the school premises, accusing him of defying the Maoist-called nation-wide strike at private schools.
“This school is registered under public trust and is a community school. Neither have we hiked our admission fees by 25-45%,”principal Bhatta argued. “They had called for strike at private schools and we were taking pre-planned entrance exams thinking ours is a community school,” Bhatta added. “I have not made any mistake. I don´t know why they did this,” he rued.
The Maoist affiliated students also vandalized Modern Aira High School and beat its principal RC Yadav for defying the banda. Likewise, our Dang correspondent Gajendra Bohara reports that two private schools-Rosy Buds Bal Batika Boarding School and Sunlight Boarding School-in Lamahi, Dang.
School bus vandalized
Meanwhile, the students also vandalized a bus belonging to a private school in Birtanagar for not giving donation to support their ´final battle´.
Around seven students, who had gone to Bhanu Memorial Higher Secondary School at Biratnagar-14, to monitor the nation-wide strike vandalized the school´s bus (Ko 1 Ka 1006) on its premises.
“They had been repeatedly asking for Rs 50,000 and I had expressed inability to pay such a huge amount. They again came to my office in the morning and demanded the money. They vandalized the bus after I expressed inability to pay the demanded sum,” principal of the school Mahendra Sitaula said.
The students, on the other hand, claimed the bus was attacked for defying the nation-wide strike. “He had been calling guardians at his office and admitting students defying the strike. The bus wasn´t vandalized for refusing to pay donations,” claimed central member of the ANNISU-R Namita Neupane.
Similarly, agitating students vandalized five schools in Myagdi district while five students, including district secretary of ANNISU-R, have been arrested, according to our correspondent Dilip Paudel in Baglung.
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