National 7 (Spotlight Weekly)

Stranded In Uncertainty

The indefinite strike called by the Maoist-affiliated student organization ANNFSU-R brings the educational sector grinding to a halt

By THAKUR AMGAI

“I do not know who has called the strike. They [the teachers] have told us not to come to schools until further notice,” said Arati Gautam, 14, a grade eight student at Graded English Medium School (GEMS). Like all children of her age group she is happy that she has gotten an unexpected vacation. However, she is equally worried about her studies that have been largely affected by such frequent closures. She feels that strikes are not good for anyone, and the schools should be re-opened soon by resolving the problem.

Like Arati, more than six million children are staying home beginning June 6. Most of the schools conducted classes on Saturday to make up for the loss on the eve of the indefinite educational strike called by the Maoists-affiliated student organization All Nepal National Free Students Union - Revolutionary (ANNFSU-R).

About 8000 private schools, 25000 government funded, 856 higher secondary schools and hundreds of institutes under different universities have been closed down. Most of the colleges under Tribhuwan University have been closed for summer vacation. There are more than six million students studying in those schools and 300,000 students are studying in higher secondary schools.

ANNFSU-R had put forward a number of demands including the implementation of the agreement reached between them and the Private and Boarding School Organization of Nepal (PABSON) last year. It demands curtailing fees up to 29 percent in the private schools and total waiving of fees in community schools. Now, they have also put forward another demand as the bottom line for talks to discuss their previous demands - to create a favorable environment for talks by lifting the terrorist tag imposed on them by the government.

All concerned institutions, including the Ministry of Education (MoE), PABSON, organization of guardians and human rights activists, among others, have deplored the move to close down schools raising political demands.

Expressing the seriousness of the Ministry towards resolving the problem, Bidhyadhar Mallik, secretary at MoE, said, “The [Education] ministry will try to lift the terrorist tag and resolve the problem through talks.”

Given the size of the mass affected and the intensity of the problem it creates in families and society, the closure of the schools will have far-reaching consequences that will be felt far beyond classrooms. However, the long term solution to the still seems quite distant given the current imbroglio of the country. The past experiences have shown that such indefinite strikes have never provided a permanent solution of any perceived or real problems in education.

The formation of commissions, submission of reports or an agreement after the talks; but poor implementation after that have been almost like rituals. The same scenario is seen every time certain demands are put forward or strikes are called upon.

“Disregarding our demands, commissions are formed every time [when a problem arises] and an agreement is reached, but lack of implementation results in strikes like this,” said Gagan Thapa, General Secretary of Nepal Students Union (NSU). “We will not hesitate to lock up the main gate of the education ministry, if the demands of the students unions are continuously ignored.” But, then will that lock up solve the problem? He has no answer.

Among other demands put forth by the ANNFSU-R include making education up to secondary level totally free in public schools. However, officials at the MoE say it is quite impossible for the government to fund the subsidy at the moment. “According to our calculations, we will need additional Rs 26 billion to do so. How can we arrange so huge amount of money?” asked Laba Prasad Tripathy, spokesperson at the MoE.

PABSON president Umesh Shrestha expresses frustration over the ‘endless attacks’ against educational institution. “Everybody should come clean about this whole thing. If all agree that they do not need private schools, we are ready to close down our schools for good. Otherwise, we cannot go on losing over Rs 35 million every day when strike is announced,” he quipped.

Professor Dr. Mana Prasad Wagle, an educationist, warns that a year lost in academic calendar would push the future of a student by five years. He added that the government should take steps to address the educational demands made by the ANNFSU-R. The government can also make the secondary education free with an additional resource of Rs. 3 billion.

As the schools remain shut down, all concerned persons and organizations have started pressing for finding out solution. However, there was enough time for the officials to prevent the strike had they acted with the same momentum before. The present educational strike was long anticipated. But, both the government agencies as well as the private sector institutions showed a conspicuous apathy towards its solution until it was quite late. The union had put their demands more than a month ago and given an ultimatum to fulfill them by May 14. Later they announced their program of indefinite strike of educational institutions from June 6, as their demands were not taken seriously.

These kinds of strikes in educational sector have become most frequent affecting the smooth running of schools. Last year, a similar strike called by the same students union had prolonged up to two weeks. The educational strikes and other strikes, last year, totaled to more than 50 days, limiting the class days to less than 150 days. The academic calendar brought out by the Ministry shows the necessity of at least 180 class days for one academic year.

Due to less number of school days, schools had to cut down holidays and also run classes during weekends. Even by doing so, the course could not be completed in most of the schools. The effect of the strikes can also be seen in the poor results of SLC and higher secondary exams.

Such an imbroglio has forced parents who can afford to send their kids abroad for study. The trend of sending children abroad for education is ever increasing after the prevalence of uncertainties in the country since last three years. The escalating number of education consultancies and the number of contact offices of the Indian Boarding schools in the city is a testimony to this fact. Every time such strike is called, hundreds of students leave the country to study in foreign lands, draining foreign currency reserves of the country.

Guardians, who cannot afford to send children abroad, are compelled to bear with the situation of uncertainty. Shashi Shrestha, father of a fifth grader at St. Xavier’s School said, “The future of the country is dark. I am very uncertain about what to do with my daughter’s studies. If finance permits, I will try to send my daughter abroad for her studies.”

Tens of thousands of parents share the woes of Shrestha. Unable to do anything, a delegation of parents had even approached the officials at the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) with request to pressurize the Maoist student wing to call off their strikes in humanitarian grounds. They believe that denying the right of education to children is tantamount to breaching human rights.

The NHRC officials have already issued a statement asking the concerned parties to immediately call off the strike in educational institutions. Likewise, officials of the UN system in Nepal have also made similar appeals.

Until and unless their appeals are accepted, students like Arati Gautam and parents like Shashi Shrestha will have to suffer the agony.