KATHMANDU, Jan 6: The All Nepal Teachers´ Union on Sunday padlocked the DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwa Bharati School in Jawalakhel accusing the school of using textbooks that threaten to undermine the national sovereignty.
The agitating teacher´s union, an umbrella organization of all the teachers across the country, has said that they were compelled to take the move as the government did not take any action against the school even as the school has been using textbooks that threaten to undermine national sovereignty.[break]
“The school has prescribed Integrated Social Science textbook for grade four, which mentions that Lord Buddha was born in India and that Mount Everest is also located in India,” said Gun Raj Lohani, chairman of All Nepal Teachers´ Union, adding “We strongly condemn this has the school has hurt the sentiments of all Nepali nationals.”
The teachers have also asked the school to sever its affiliation with the Indian Council of Secondary Education, which has prescribed the controversial textbook.
The issue came to light when three teachers who were fired from the school joined hands with their umbrella organization and announced phase-wise protests on December 21.
The school had fired two teachers Sagar Thapa and Santosh Jha in September accusing them of conspiring against the school administration.
Rajendra Manandhar, who taught computer science for the last seven years in the school, was also fired on December 16 on similar grounds.
“We could not keep mum as the school has been prescribing textbooks that threaten to undermine national sovereignty,” said Manandhar. He added that the school management had offered him a golden handshake. However, Lalitpur District Education Office has already ordered the school administration to reinstate the sacked teachers.
“We want our job back and also want the school to respect our sovereignty,” added Manandhar.
According to Lohani, the teachers had informed the school administration, District Education Office and the District Administration Office, Lalitpur in advance about their protest programs.
However, the government is yet to make an official statement.
Manakaji Shakya, District Education Officer of Lalitpur was unavailable for comments.
The protest has not hampered classes as the school had announced winter vacation from December 24 to January 27.
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