National 3 (Spotlight Weekly)

Short-lived Succor?

The Maoists' student wing withdraws the indefinite strike but threatens to impose it again in February

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

After mounting pressure from students, parents and civil society, the student wing of Maoists — All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU-Revolutionary) — finally called off its indefinite closure of schools and educational institutions on December 23, 2002.

Though the news came as a relief to hundreds of thousand of parents, it appears the revolutionary students will be up to their old tricks once again in case their demands are not met. The press release by the Maoist students clearly threatens that they will be imposing similar indefinite strikes all across the country beginning February 13 next year. Their primary objective, it seems, is to get rid of the terrorist tag it has been branded with.

Students in classroom : Short respite

The revolutionary student wing earned the terrorist tag last year following its acts of destruction in educational facilities. They had announced the indefinite strike beginning December 9, 2002 that forced more than five hundred thousand students out of their regular academic exercise.

The revolutionary students put off their strikes a day after the Private and Boarding Schools Organization of Nepal (PABSON), the leading organization of private schools, unilaterally announced that it would open all schools beginning December 23. Expressing frustration at the impasse, the PABSON said it was going to urge all schools to open notwithstanding the strike imposed by the rebel students. In the same breathe, the PABSON also made a number of decisions that aimed to address some demands of the ANNFSU-R.

The PABSON made decisions to slash down tuition fees being charged by its member schools ranging from 10 to 25 percent. Rajesh Khadka, president of PABSON, said the decision was made in order to end the impasse and help in the development of education sector. According to him, the new decision will come into force beginning January 15, 2003. The break up of the slashing of tuition fees is such that the students paying more than Rs 2000 a month will now be offered 25 percent discount. Likewise, those paying in the range of Rs 1500 and Rs 2000 will be waived 20 percent and those paying in the range of Rs 500 and Rs 1500 will be waived 15 percent. The students paying Rs 300 to Rs 500, will now enjoy 10 percent discount. The revolutionary students had demanded that the private schools bring down their tuition fees by 50 percent.

The PABSON has also made public 11-point code of conduct for its member organizations that calls for making academic institutions transparent and developing the schools with the support of the local community.

Among their major decisions include termination of the practice of re-admission fees, school construction and development fees. The PABSON has also decided that the private schools will now comply with the nationally approved curriculum, refrain from employing foreign nationals as teachers and boycott the use of foreign textbooks and teaching materials that are detrimental to the national interest and those that go against the achievements of 1990's people's movement.

ìThough it appears as a justified move on surface, the decision to refrain from employing foreign nationals as teachers and foreign textbooks could hit at the quality of teaching at the private schools. Even though it may be the best thing if we can use our own resources, but at present, we do not have adequate trained teachers to meet the demand of quality. Likewise, private schools which were regarded as vanguards of quality education in the country may now lose that fame forcing parents to seek for alternatives. The parents who can afford will definitely turn to neighboring countries for the education of their wards now. Besides, despite their being of foreign origin, most private schools used to utilize Indian textbooks, which used to be imported in huge volume, that were of higher quality. Whether the Nepali print and educational enterprises are able to fill up the resulting vacuum in short notice is doubtful,î said a senior teacher at the leading private school.

Moreover, all these major departures will come to naught if the revolutionary students re-impose the indefinite country-wide strikes next February. As it appears, the government is in no mood to lift the terrorist tag, which they are desperate to get rid of especially as they seem to want to take part in the biennial student elections in the government colleges that will be held in February/March next year.

The present government, too, has not shown any sign of removing the tag. "The government is not particularly interested in branding any organization as terrorist. But when they continue to engage in bombing and violent activities there is no option left," said Devi Prasad Ojha, minister for education. He indicated to recent bombing at Tribhuwan University and several other educational institutions across the country. Last year the Maoists had also damaged the Mahendra Sanskrit University in Dang where lots of priceless ancient scriptures, too, were destroyed.

As both the government and ANNFSU-R are sticking to their guns, the future of hundreds of thousands of students has become gloomy even as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) recently appealed the concerned parties not to use basic education for children as tool for political means. "We are very concerned that basic education should not be used for political means," Suomi Sakai, UNICEF Representative to Nepal was quoted as saying in the Kantipur daily early this week. "Schools must be declared a zone of peace," Sakai said. "But the community of parents must feel greater ownership and take care of schools at the time of crisis like this." Nepal is one of the 25 countries in the world that is unlikely to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015, Sakai warned. "They include universal primary education and achieving gender equality in education." UNICEF is currently providing US $ 7.25 million for funding education in Nepal with a campaign towards achieving Education for All (EFA) goals and achieving gender-parity in education by 2005. It supports formal education, child protection and alternate learning, both from its regular as well as other resources.