National 5 (Spotlight Weekly)

Struck By Strikes

The five-day bandh coinciding with the SLC examinations is bound to have a far-reaching impact on the education sector

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

Sschool padhne, college padhne,
Yo desh ko tara hun,
Yinko padhai, parikshya ma,
Badha halnu hundaina

These lines from popular singer Prem Dhoj Pradhan’s latest song make a solemn and touching request to everybody to refrain from hurting the education sector. By describing school and college students as the “stars” of the nation, Pradhan echoes society’s concerns about how frequent strikes and shutdowns have come to cloud the nation’s future.

Another popular youth band “Nepathya” has organized a nation-wide campaign called “Education for peace” with the objective of separating education from violence.

Students waiting for school-bus : Victimized

The announcement (and the eleventh hour call-off) of the April 2-6 bandh by the Maoists, coinciding with this year’s all-important School Leaving Certificate — more popularly known as SLC — examinations, has plunged the country in utter disappointment. The rebels’ move has prompted wide criticism. Though they pulled out their call for the bandh at the last hour on Monday, the damage was already done. Students had already suffered tremendous psychological trauma. In districts, even the withdrawal of bandh may not help to ease the tension immediately as it would take time for the news to reach there.

More than 250,000 students are sitting for this year’s SLC exam, which is considered an important milestone in every Nepalese student’s life. It is also known as “iron gate”, marking the entrance to college life.

The poor law-and-order situation has added woes to the students, who are psychologically affected. “Instead of concentrating on studies, their attention has been diverted towards issues of safety and security. How can they perform well in such an environment?” asked a teacher.

Already the government has decided to cut down the number of exam centers in the districts, making the lives of distraught students even more difficult. Citing security reasons, the authorities have cancelled exam centers lying outside district headquarters. “Now for many students in the districts, it is going to be an uphill task even to appear at the center. Unless they temporarily migrate to the district headquarters or surrounding areas, they are not going to be able to reach the centers,” said the teacher.

The authorities have brought down the number of exam centers in the country to 683 from last year’s 833. However, the government has stated that it has made all security arrangements to help students.

“The efforts of the Home, Defense and Education Ministries are being coordinated in such a manner as to guarantee the security of students,” said Baikuntha Das Shrestha, a senior official at the Ministry of Education and Sports.

The ministry has also appealed to all concerned to cooperate in ensuring that the SLC exams are held without disturbance. In a rare show of unity, powerful student wings of the four leading political parties — Nepali Congress, Unified Marxist-Leninist, Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Nepal Sadbhavana Party — have pledged all possible help to the authorities to run the exams smoothly.

In a joint press conference held earlier this week, the leaders of the student wings requested students to appear in the exams without fear. Some of them have even pledged to mobilize their cadres to help the students.

Ever since the Maoists launched their “people’s war” six years ago, education has been their favorite target. Whether it is the abduction and killing of teachers or vandalism of schools, the education sector has been put under severe stress. The Maoists have deliberately killed twenty-eight teachers so far — nine of them since the state of emergency was declared in late November last year — and dozens of others have been maimed, according to a statement by the London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International two months ago.

“We are terrorized. The country is being brought down. You cannot tell where these terrorists are going to strike next,” said Father Jim Donelly, an experienced educator at the St. Xavier’s school.

Nearly a year after their student wing organized a week-long closure of schools across the country, the Maoists called the five-day bandh during the SLC exams. It was only after considerable pressure from civil society, rights groups, professional organizations that the Maoists postponed their bandh call at the last moment. However, the tension that was built up in days prior to the exams has most certainly left students psychologically scarred.