Education to undergo profound changes
Teachers to be licensed, public schools to levy fees

By Binaj Gurubacharya

KATHMANDU, Oct 3 - Thousands of government school teachers will be required to apply for a license to teach once the Bill proposing seventh amendment to the Education Act is passed by Parliament. Another significant aspect of the Bill is that public education, which is mostly free today, would cease to remain free for middle and higher secondary levels.

Once the Bill is in place and a licensing mechanism established, all the public school teachers throughout the nation will face tough licensing exams that is designed to flush out those with fake education degrees from institutions across the border.

The proposed Bill, a copy of which has been obtained by The Kathmandu Post, has already been debated, discussed, amended and endorsed by the Population and Social Committee of parliament and is expected to be approved by the House of Representatives before the current Session is prorogued next week.

The estimated 150,000 government school teachers, and even those who are currently employed even in permanent positions, will be issued a temporary license within six months of the Bill becoming an Act. They will be required to apply and take the test within the next five years from the date the new law is enforced.

Failing to do so, they will be automatically retired but will be given the benefits received through normal retirement procedure.

All new teachers will be required to be issued with the license before taking up teaching jobs in government-run schools which will now be called ‘community schools’ instead of public schools.

There have been numerous cases where teachers have been caught working without proper education training and degree. Many of them were found having bought fake certificates from colleges and universities in neighbouring Indian states.

Not just the teachers but many other professions have been hit by this kind of practice and there have been numerous government measures to check the trend.

However, only few people have been actually caught whereas estimates of fake certificate run much higher than the ratio of people actually caught. In the education sector, it is as high as 30 per cent.

The new mechanism would not only flush out the teachers with fake certificates but also the incompetent and unqualified people now currently teaching in schools across the nation.

In another major change, the Bill would also enable these schools to charge fees to students. Only the primary level education will be free. This would mean that the students in secondary and high schools would be required to pay fees to be enrolled.

The move would totally reverse the policy enforced by previous governments that has made education in all the grades of public school almost free. Education tools such as books have also been made free up to the fifth and seventh grades.

Now books would be free only up to the third grade. Critics say such a move would discourage poor parents from sending their children to schools and the already low literacy rate could take a steeper plunge in the years to come.

And to discourage the growing case of politicisation of the education system, teachers will be barred from taking part in any election of political parties or organisations affiliated with it, work in these organisations and represent these parties.

The schools can expel the teachers for political involvement, coming to work intoxicated, absent for over 15 days without a notice and failing to fulfill basic duties.

Private schools will now be called "institutional schools" and will be brought under the tax net as they would now have to be registered under a trust or as a company and lose all the privileges, concessions and waivers enjoyed by these schools.

These schools will be categorised and then the government will fix the fees they will be able to charge. This could to some extend control the "out of reach" fees charged by most of the private schools.

Women Commission to be formed: Deuba

Post Report

BIRATNAGAR, Oct 3 – Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba today reiterated commitment to resolve the Maoists problem through the peace talks that has been stalled since the second round held at a jungle resort in Bardia.

"We don’t understand why the Maoists are saying they would make the Rajdurbar (Royal Palace) and Singhadurbar the same state as the Pentagon," said Deuba.

He was referring to the Maoist threat of attacks on the Royal Palace and the Singhadurbar, the central secretariat housing the Prime Minister’s office, like the September 11 attacks on the American defence headquarters.

Deuba added that the government would leave no stone unturned to resolve the problem through peaceful means. Addressing the opening of the National Convention of the Nepali Congress affiliated Nepal Women’s Association, Deuba said he would try to get the Muluki Ain (11th Amendment) Bill through parliament in this session.

He also said the Women’s Commission to safeguard the rights of the women would also be constituted soon along with the Dalit Welfare Commission.

Deuba’s predecessor Girija Prasad Koirala said since the Maoists were being rejected by the people, they would eventually be wiped out. "There have been cases of rejection in many places and we all need to continue with this and I will lead this campaign," he said.

Koirala further added that the demands of the Maoists for a republic state, interim government and a new constitution would never be fulfilled. "How can republic be established in a state where there is a Monarchy?" he further said.

Karnali migrant workers return home for Dashain

By Surendra Phuyal & Chitranga Thapa

BANBASA (Nepal-India Border), Oct 3 – Some of them left their homes two, three and even four years ago, while the others left just three months back. And now with the Dashain and Tihar, the great festivals of the Hindu Kingdom fast approaching nearer, they are making a comeback, albeit for a short while.

Every morning, as the first rays of the sun fall on the snow-fed Mahakali, the border river dividing Nepali territory with that of India, dozens and dozens of Nepalis disembark off the night buses that ferry passengers to the Nepal-India border area from different cities of India.

With Dashain just three weeks away, the crowd of the migrant workers is apparently thickening day by day these days, and customs officials and police personnel stationed here are having a hard time. The rickshaw and the horse-cartpullers as well as the small-time tea and cigarette vendors too have no time to relax these days.

Soon after disembarking from the buses the migrant workers cross the mighty Mahakali, their full backpacks and sacks on their shoulders and backs, and step onto their homeland, Nepal. "Finally we are home," said Gyan Bahadur Nepali, 25, of Holeri village, Rolpa, as he put down his backpack and heaved a sigh of relief. "I am going to catch a bus to my home in Salyan from Mahendranagar. My parents, wife and children must be looking my way for Dashain."

Nepali, along with his neighbours, Chitra Bahadur, 17, and Tulasi Ram, 16, returned from Simla in the northern Indian state of Himanchal Pradesh, where they worked as labourers in apple farms. "We could earn upto Nepali Rs 200-250 in a single day there, but here in Nepal it is difficult to find jobs like that," Nepali added.

Inhabitants of the troubled region with relatively low productivity, less opportunities - now worsened by the armed uprising of the Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist, tens of thousands of people from the Karnali region migrate to India via Nepalgunj-Rupadiya and Mahendranagar-Banbasa every year.

The exodus of such migrant workers is believed to have increased after the start of the Maoist uprising in early 1996 and the famine of 1998 in the food deficit areas of Mugu, Humla and other districts.

Across India, they work as labourers in factories, infrastructure projects and farms. A few of them also work as security guards (or the "Bahadurs") in private residents or factories, cooks, waiters. A sizeable number of young Nepalis also work in the Gurkha regiment of the Indian army.

For many migrant workers, working environment in India is "just perfect", and the tradition dates back to generations. "I went to Simla last year after my employee, Balbir Singh, sent me an interest-free loan of Indian Rs 6,000," said Dil Bahadur Rokaya of Rukum, whose late father, Ram Bahadur, also worked at Balbir Singh’s farm. "I worked there for little more than a year and now I have enough bucks to make ends meet this Dashain and Tihar."

But things are not always so cozy and rosy for everybody. Laxmi Ram Biswokarma and Khadga Bahadur Biswokarma, of Naumule village in Dailekh, who returned from Anjisan, Uttaranchal Pradesh, said they suffered a lot during their four-month-long stay in India.

"We were not even paid properly," Biswokarma said as he boarded a bus for Surkhet from Mahendranagar. "We were working as labourers in a power house project there, but our contractor who was responsible for our payment escaped and then we were penniless. We borrowed Indian Rs 600 from a friend of ours to return home."

The Biswokarmas left home after planting paddies in their fields. "Now the paddies are ripe and yellow and the Dashain is near," Laxmi Ram said as he gazed at the yellow paddy fields from the window of the bus whisking on the East West Highway west of the Karnali River. It was a sunny afternoon: the sky was clear, the monsoon clouds were not there, and the silvershining Himalayas were glistening far away in the horizon.

September tourist arrivals show sharp fall

By Satyendra Timilsina

KATHMANDU, Oct 3 – The global downturn in tourism has also hit Nepal’s tourism industry hard. According to the latest figures made available by the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), tourist arrivals by air in September tumbled by 29 percent in comparison to the same period last year.

However, not all is bad news on the tourism front. The same figures also show that tourist arrivals actually increased by 38 percent in comparison to August.

The precipitous decline in arrivals as compared to last year is being attributed to domestic woes such as political instability, Maoist violence and the Royal massacre of June 1, as well as the global downturn in tourism in the aftermath of the devastating terror attacks in the US on September 11.

"There were plenty of cancellations (of previously booked tours) after the September 11 attacks," says Pradeep Raj Pandey, the chief executive officer of NTB. "This is the main reason for the slump in September."

According to the figures compiled by the Immigration Department and released by the NTB, tourists inflow in September was recorded at 25,360. The figure for the same month last year was 35,804 while that for August this year was 18,383.

During the month, the total number of Indian tourist was recorded at 5,017, which is around 20 per cent of total incoming tourists. During the month, third country tourist arrival declined by 24.4 per cent while Indian tourist declined by 43.6 per cent as compared to the figures of last September.

The tourist arrival figure has continuously been slumping in the post-Royal massacre period. Tourist arrival by air following the royal carnage of June 1 dropped by 56 per cent in June, 29 percent in July and 26.3 per cent in August.

Comparing the statistics for the first nine months, inflow of tourists declined by 9.8 percent as compared to the same period last year. The tourist inflow was 249,958 in the first nine months of 2000, but decreased to 225,568 this year.

A major chunk of the decline was in the arrival of Indian tourists, an important segment of Nepal’s tourism arrivals. The first nine months saw a drop of Indian tourist inflow by over 26 per cent. However, the decline in third country tourist arrival was by a mere 3.2 per cent in the same period.

Country-wise, the only increase recorded in September was in the case of Belgium from where tourist arrival surged by 10 per cent.

Tourist arrivals into the country has been on the wane ever since the Indian Airlines flight 814 that took off from the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on the 1999 Christmas eve was hijacked.

In the year 2000, total visitors coming to Nepal through air slumped by an aggregate 11 per cent. In the case of Indian tourists alone, who comprise over a third of the total inflow, such decrease was to the tune of 31 per cent.

People begin Dashain shopping spree

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Oct 3 – With just two weeks remaining for Dashain, the biggest festival of Hindus, people in the capital have already started going on a shopping spree.

The busy streets of New Road, Bagbazaar and other shopping areas are getting busier than ever each day.

Even the shopkeepers are trying their level best to get new and latest stuff for Dashain as this is the main time of the year for business. For that matter, many of the shops have already started their "sale" offers to clear their shops, only to be replaced by the new items.

Shopping is synonymous with Dashain as people believe that wearing new clothes during this festival would bring prosperous days ahead.

Ashok Gurung, manager of Gossip clothes shop in New Road says, "People have started to visit our shop more frequently lately and are desperately awaiting new items."

Besides the regular shops in the main city centres, the one-time festivals too have attracted many customers. "Kathmandu Utsav," held every year at the Bhrikuti Mandap, too has attracted many customers looking for goods of reasonable price.

With majority of the shops selling Nepali and Indian products, the Kathmandu Utsav has been a good alternative to the middle class households.

People prefer this kind of event as it comes at a time when shopping is lavishly done and everything is available under one roof, says Dr Pradeep Bhattarai, press coordinator of Everest Exhibitions, organisers of the Utsav.

The Utsav has 160 stalls, out of which about 30 of them are selling products from India. More than 4500 customers are visiting the Utsav every day, says Sabin Arjel, manager of Everest Exhibitions. "And the number shoots up to 8000 in the weekend."

Not only does the Utsav sell products, they have also been organising various entertainment events to attract the customers. Says Arjel, "These bands are organized to attract customers and to give some festive touch to the event besides shopping." But, many people were seen loitering around the stage just to enjoy the free shows instead of going inside the hall for shopping.

Meena Sherpa and Gonpo Tsering, a couple from Pokhara, were ecstatic about the event and shopping for Dashain. Meena and her family have visited almost all the major shops in the Valley and have now come to look out for more fun and shopping at the Utsav.

But not everyone is positive towards this type of events as they have become monotonous. Some of the visitors at the Utsav said they had expected more fun, better quality and variety of items than the last year but it turned out to be the same. Selina Lama, one of the regular visitors to these events, says, "Things are pretty much the same like last year and in fact the items are not worth buying."

But majority of the Kathmanduites are enjoying going to these events, either to buy reasonably priced goods or to enjoy the popular Nepali singers rendering their best numbers for free.

And if the people here do not get the chance to shop during the Utsav, there are few other events coming up before the biggest festival actually begins.

St. Mary’s family pays tributes to Sister Benigna

By Pooja Shrestha

LALITPUR, Oct 3 – Hundreds of past and present students of St. Mary’s High School gathered at the school premises at Godavari today to pay the last respects to their former principal.

Sister Benigna Binder passed away at the age of 89 on Tuesday, the day of feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. The Sister worked as the Principal of the country’s one of the premier educational institutions for nearly two decades.

Many of the St Mary’s students remember Benigna as a person full of life. She was born in Germany on December 30,1911. She entered the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM) on 23rd April, 1933 and came to India in November the same year. She made her Final Profession in Kanpur, India on 23rd April, 1941.

Sr. Benigna had worked in Kanpur, Jhansi and the U.S. where there was a need for sisters. When the house in Little Rock, Arkansas closed down she went to Rome where she spent two years working in the Generalate.

The time during which she did much for the Institute was spent in Patna where she was Superior for 9 years. During that time, she made numerous visits to Kathmandu and with the Assistance of Father Moran, was finally able to start St. Mary’s School on 26th January 1955. This filled a great need for girls’ only school in Kathmandu, for which thousands are still grateful.

During the time she was Superior here, she also opened St. Mary’s School in Pokhara. Her vision to see many more girls receive good education was materialised when St. Mary’s School was opened in Gorkha and then the two Mary Ward Schools for the underprivileged children in Jhamsikhel and Lubhu.

After Sr. Benigna had completed her term as Superior here, she was a dedicated class teacher. For her, work was never a labour. She always did her work joyfully and wholeheartedly. Sr. Manik IBMV, who took care of her in the last few days said, "She was a fun loving and humorous kind of person but at the same time a disciplined person."

She was a very strong, up bright and just person in her dealings with everyone, recalls Sr. Manik. "She was very dedicated to her prayer life and gave priority to her religious duties."

Anita Rai, one of the ex- students, remembers her to be a person who had many problems but kept it to her self. "She was an introvert specially during the last days of her life," says Rai.

Principal of St. Mary’s School Sr. Margaret IBMV says, "Sr. Benigna as a teacher loved all the students equally and was a good English teacher. As her father was from the Military, she had implied strict rules and regulations."

Sr. Benigna had a heart attack in October and from that time onwards she was bedridden. Ms. Dorothy and Sr. Manik then dedicated their time serving her.

Sr. Manik IBMV recalls, "She could not speak for the past 5 days and conveyed the message in action. But on the very day, it was a very peaceful death."

Gas tempos still remain ‘unsafe’

By Birodh Pandey

KATHMANDU, Oct 3 – Lives of thousands of commuters travelling in the capital’s cooking-gas-run vehicles continue to remain at stake as a government body responsible for managing transportation sector fails to make the manufacturers and operators of the gas-run vehicles abide by the government rules and regulations.

The government officials and the Gas Vehicle Association (GVA), shying away from their responsibility, have blamed the Kathmandu Tuk Tuk, the manufacturer of gas-run three-wheelers, which number around 500 in the Valley. According to them, it is denying a simple instrument called "refueling valve" to the operators, which is why the gas-run three wheelers continue to remain "unsafe for travelling".

As the refueling valves are not fixed in the fuel supplying mechanism of the three-wheelers, experts say, "there remains the possibility of the gas cylinders installed in such vehicles exploding anytime, anywhere."

"The refueling valve is an essential instrument which is necessary to replace the present tanks used by the gas tempos with the proper safe liquid petroleum gas (LPG) tanks," says Basanta Nakarmi, an automobile engineer at the Surya Auto Mechanical Workshop and in charge of a gas refueling station.

The Department of Transport Management had ordered the operators of LPG-run vehicles to install genuine gas kits which also includes the refueling valve recently. However, few have followed the government directives. Deputy Director General of the Transport Management Office, Sushil Agrawal, who issued the directives, now passes the buck on operators’ association and the sole manufacturer, the Kathmandu Tuk Tuk.

"The remedy to the problem is that the responsibility of delivering and subsequently installing the refueling valve should be borne by the association and manufacturer themselves and not by the government," he said, when asked what was the government doing to ensure safety of the gas-run three-wheelers.

Birendra Raya, a mechanical engineer at the Kathmandu Tuk Tuk, said that the newly installed refueling system is based on Italian technology. "The government should have permitted to operate Japanese technology-based refueling stations, as the tempos running in the Valley are equipped with Japanese engines and so we have the refueling valves only compatible with Japanese technology."

Gas-tempos entrepreneurs started replacing the gas tempos with proper LPG tanks after the Nepal Bureau of Standards & Metrology (NBSM) notified the entrepreneurs to immediately stop using the domestic cylinders citing various safety reasons.

"We are ready to install the LPG tank as required by the government and the general public. But the manufacturing company has been delaying the supply of refueling valves stating various reasons," said Chiranjibi Maskey, the President of GVA.

"However, we have just received a promising letter from the Tuk Tuk that they will replace the domestic cylinders with the LPG ones (with proper refueling valves) by October 22," he added.

According to the GVA chief, the association desperately wants to replace the domestic cylinders as the pressure is mounting from every side.

"We are now exploring the possibility of importing the instrument from Thailand," said Birendra Raya of the Kathmandu Tuk Tuk.

Curfew extended for third day in Tulsipur

Post Report

GHORAHI, Oct 3 - The indefinite curfew in Tulsipur has been extended for the third straight day after a mob vandalised public buses over the deaths of two students on Sunday, according to the local administration. The curfew was lifted only for a few hours this morning, easing locals to purchase daily commodities.

Public transports from this district have been stalled after the mob vandalised some private buses and set a ticket counter on fire. Rapti Zone Transport Entrepreneurs’ Committee has announced an indefinite transport strike in protest against the Monday’s vandalism. The entrepreneurs said they would not call off the strike until the government provided them with compensations for the damage incurred to their buses.

The transport strike for the last four days has paralysed the entire life in the Mid and Far Western Region of the country with no more public transports operating on highways. Hundreds of people, especially from India, returning to their home for Dashain festival are stranded in border towns waiting for the transport service to resume.

Suji Budha, a local woman from Rolpa, told The Kathmandu Post that she was unable to trek a long distance to receive her pension that is being distributed at Chaughera because of the transport strike.

Superintendent of police in Dang, Gopal Bhandari, said that local administration was holding dialogues with the transport entrepreneurs to resume the transport and bus entrepreneurs were assessing details of the property damaged from Monday’s violence.

A bus entrepreneur said that Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka had assured them to provide compensations shortly after an assessment of the damage was made public.

Meanwhile, relatives of the two students killed in the accident performed their last rites at Ghorahi four days after their deaths. The other one, Jeevraj Bhandari, 25, who was injured in police firing, also died on Tuesday on the way to Nepalgunj hospital. Bhandari’s last rites were also carried out at his home village.

The district police office said that the situation of Tulsipur and its neighbourhood was gradually returning to normal from Wednesday. All the schools in Tulsipur and Ghorahi were partially opened today with no more incidents of violence in the areas, according to the police.

‘Much of foreign grants unaudited’

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Oct 3 - The Auditor General Bishnu Bahadur K.C. today said that as much as 65 percent of the money received as foreign grant goes unaudited.

"The Auditor General’s Office (AGO) does not receive details or status of much of the foreign grants or agreements reached with donor nations or agencies," K.C. told the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

He said there needs to be a system placed that would integrate all the foreign grants so the government and his office could keep track of the money pledged, received or spent by the donor agencies or nations.

There has been 237 agreements with donors in the past five years but the AGO has received information on only 41 of them.

"If the donors do not trust the AGO then maybe the donors could get their own auditing done but allow the AGO to do the same," K.C. said. "All these accounts should be brought under the fiscal budget and then audited ... if not then at least the AGO should be notified about it."

K.C. had presented the annual AGO’s report just few days ago where he had stated that the total foreign loans drawn by the country has reached a whooping Rs. 194.37 billion and with no auditing of such amount there are widespread misuse and irregularities of this money.