OFF THE RECORD (Spotlight Weekly)

‘A Large Number Of Students Will Now Flock Overseas’

— RAJESH KHADKA

RAJESH KHADKA is the central executive chairman of the Private and Boarding School Organization Nepal (PABSON) and founder director of GEMS school. Khadka spoke to SPOTLIGHT on issues related to problems faced by schools after they were forced to close down for a week by the All Nepal National Free Students Union (Revolutionary) -- the student wing of the Maoist party. Excerpts:

How many students will be affected by the closedown?

This one-week-long closure will be detrimental to the future of more than five million students including two million students who study in 10,000 private schools. It is not in the interest of anybody. Because of the forcible closure, the academic calendar has been disturbed. This has affected the second term exam of classes one to nine and the pre-sent-up exam of class ten. The present situation is clearly not normal.

Has your organization taken any steps in this regard?

Our organization has already issued a press release urging the concerned parties not to drag educational institutions into their activities. It will be in the best interest of all concerned to allow schools to run without disruption.

What will be the impact of the week-long closedown?

Unfortunately, this is a major loss to the country. If such actions continue, a large number of parents will send their children to India and other countries for their studies.

What is the response of the government?

We saw that a number of private schools in Lamjung and Gorkha were closed down because of insecurity and we are beginning to feel similar situation here despite the assurances from the government. As private schools are operating under the policy of the government, they must be allowed to run.

People's Prince

It is not only members of the British royal family who enjoy meeting their subjects. Nepal's young Crown Prince Dipendra showed his keenness to mingle with commoners last week when he came to the dias of journalists for a chat. Following the restoration of democracy, the barriers between the royal family and the general public seem to be falling one after the other.

Daughter's Cause

How would you describe a program chaired by the daughter and inaugurated by the father? Being the prime minister, Girija Prasad Koirala is obviously one of the most sought-after personalities for program organizers. But it was still a little odd to see him at a program launched by an NGO run by his lively daughter Sujata Koirala. A family affair, indeed.

Lonely Leader

Communist Party of Nepal-Marxist Leninist General Secretary Bamdev Gautam appears so isolated these days that he could not even find workers to paste party posters recently. So what did he do? If it had been Congress leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai or RPP leader Surya Bahadur Thapa, they would have simply hired workers to do the job. But Gautam chose the harder option. He just got into his Pajero and went around the city pasting the posters himself. After all, when he can throw stones in the streets, what is wrong in pasting posters for the party's central convention?

Party Line First

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Poudel Nowhere

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