PABSON's Positive Step

IN line with the government's reform programmes to improve the country's education system, the Private and Boarding Schools' Organisation/Nepal (PABSON) has taken specific measures in a bid to end the current uncertainty in the sector. The uncertainty was triggered by the so-called indefinite closure of schools at the call of All Nepal National Free Students Union-Revolutionary, the student faction of the outlawed Nepal Communist Party (Maoist). Earlier, the government had made some important decisions requiring the private schools to provide various facilities to the girls and socially underpriviledged students like Thami, Raute, Chepang and Hayu. The measures, among others, include free education to the oppressed groups. Similarly, it has been made compulsory for the private schools to contribute 1.5 per cent in the Rural Education Development Fund and provide scholarships to five per cent of the total students. And now, following the two weeks' closure, the PABSON has decided to reduce the tuition fees by 15-25 per cent. In addition, the schools will have to provide freeship to the students and scrap the additional charges for readmission, re-registration, physical development and construction etc. except the regular annual charges. The closure has already cost dearly to all the concerned parents and students, especially those who are waiting to appear in the School Leaving Certificate examinations stipulated to be held in April next year.

However, PABSON's announcement that it would reopen the schools from today comes as a happy relief. Problems may arise in every field and staging protest programmes for the sake of reforms in the concerned sector could be taken positively. But, in the name of protests, forceful closure of such important institutions like schools and colleges where young minds are moulded to bear the future responsibilities of the country, cannot be accepted. There are democratic means of seeking solutions to the problems like dialogues. Therefore, all the concerned organisations and individuals need to be prevent the recurrence of such unwanted incidents in the future and take timely measures.

Predicting Monsoon Weather

WHILE addressing the concluding session of the four-day training seminar on "Summer monsoon and predicting techniques", Minister for Health, Science and Technology Dr. Upendra Devkota said that for an effective application of the acquired hydrological and meteorological data, it is important that such data are exchanged properly and timely. That not only Nepal but also many Asian nations are inordinately dependent on the seasonal monsoon winds-and subsequently, the rains-for good harvests to sustain their economies, if not to keep hunger and want at bay from the doorsteps of their peoples, hardly needs any elaboration here. While this, in more ways than one, is a telling indication of such nations' rudimentary scientific and technological base and infrastructure, considering such nations' heavy dependence on the yearly monsoon winds and rains in keeping their economic wheels turning, the need for them to come up with necessary resources, efforts and will to upgrade, if not develop, their scientific and technological capabilities has become all the more urgent. This is more so for a least developed, resource-strapped and cash - crunched nation like Nepal. For, if on the one hand its agricultural sector still continues to be the mainstay of its economy and the largest contributor to its GDP, then on the other, the same sector, apart from being the biggest employment generator for a vast majority of its people, is having to feed the yearly additions to its population also in such an unenviable situation wherein the good or otherwise performance of its agricultural sector could either make or mar its entire socio-economic well-being, that the nation's capabilities to predict the yearly monsoon season and rains' advent and strength still leave enough room for improvement can be gleaned from reports of monsoon crops either withered by droughts or inundated by floods. And, in turn, burdening not only the government but also the farmers with additional problems, if not challenges. However, this is not to say that the concerned authorities are not up to their mark as far as predicting the yearly monsoon's situation and conditions. They are. But still, if the nation's agricultural sector in general and the farmers in particular were to derive maximum benefits from the yearly monsoon rains, the concerned authorities, to further develop their skills and expertise, need to be availed with more resources, manpower and monsoon predicting facilities.