The All Nepal National Independent Student Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) called off its indefinite strike after the Ministry of Education (MoE) formed a three member panel on Thursday to determine a new scientific fee structure. [break]
The panel led by Mahashram Sharma, joint secretary at the ministry, will come up with a new formula for determining school fees on the basis of Education Act (1971).
According to Rajesh Khadka, president of Private And Boarding Schools´ Organization of Nepal (PABSON), the panel -- which will later on include representatives of school owners, student unions and guardians -- will determine monthly fees within 20 days.
"The fees to be determined by the panel may not necessarily be lower than now," Khadka told myrepublica.com. "It could also be higher also."
The current decision of fee hike has been put on hold for the time being.
The formula to be introduced by the Sharma panel, according to Khadka, will be useful in determining fees for all private schools across the country. Earlier, district-level Fees Determining and Monitoring Committees of Kathmandu and Lalitpur had introduced different structures for hiking fees in their own ways.
ANNISU-R had forced the closure of over 8,000 private schools throughout the country since Sunday, keeping around 1.5 million students out of classrooms. Over a dozen of schools and several buses belonging to a few schools were vandalized by the Maoist students for defying their educational strike.
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