 |
||
|
||
EDUCATION STRIKE |
|
||
|
||
EDUCATION STRIKE |
Brief Respite The organizers have allowed
to resume classes for the time being, but the shadow of strike is yet to be lifted By SANJAYA DHAKAL After the full two weeks of no classes in
schools and colleges across the country, the pro-Maoist student wing All Nepal National
Free Students Union – Revolutionary (ANNFSU) on June 18 finally agreed to withdraw
– temporarily – the strike it had imposed. Although parents and teachers have heaved a
sigh of relief now that the strikes are over, they are not fully convinced that their
children can engage in undisturbed studies in the days ahead. One of the most frequent victim of
political instability in the country has been its education sector. Raising justified as
well as unjustified demands, various student wings of different political color hold the
education sector to ransom.
“Our schools and colleges have
become a political battlefield,” said Dr. Min Bahadur Bista, an educationist. Two
weeks ago ANNFSU-R organized indefinite strikes in educational institutions raising
demands like providing free education up to secondary level and so on. But they posed the
demand for withdrawal of terrorist tag as their topmost priority. Ironically, even as they
demanded that the terrorist tag be withdrawn from their head, their activists attacked a
school in Chitawan and in Kathmandu. “It is strange that during the whole
of the two weeks, most people including those from the civil society demanded that the
government withdrew the terrorist tag. They did not put enough pressure of the ANNFSU-R to
come to the mainstream,” said a school principal. “Such one-way pressure will
not work in the larger interest of the country.” Many agree that the civil society has
failed to convince the strike-organizers – be they ANNFSU-R or the student wings of
mainstream parties – that they must refrain from holding education sector to ransom. Following the commitment by the government
to withdraw the terrorist tag - which it fulfilled later on June 21 - ANNFSU-R called off
its indefinite strike on June 18. In the meantime, the nation had already lost 14 precious
days, which cannot be regained. The strike caused incalculable losses in terms of impact
on psychology of over 6.5 million students. “Private schools lose money worth Rs 3.5
million every single day of such strike,” said Umesh Shrestha, president of Private
and Boarding Schools Organization of Nepal (PABSON). Unfortunately, the current withdrawal seems
to be a temporary one. In a statement issued by the ANNFSU-R, it has warned that it will
again come up with severe forms of protest in case the government does not fulfill its
commitment. It took nearly a week-long mediation of
talks between the government and the ANNFSU-R by a taskforce formed by civil society to
end the indefinite strike. After the Education Minister Bimalendra Nidhi stated that the
government will start the process of withdrawing terrorist tag from the organization, the
latter called off its strike. “The government and the ANNFSU-R will later hold
face-to-face talks on the actual agenda, which will be the biggest achievement of this
mediation,” said Padma Ratna Tuladhar, coordinator of the task force. Earlier, the ANNFSU-R had rejected the
government offer of its promise to withdraw terrorist tag if the former vowed to declare
educational institutions as Zone of Peace. The civil society, NGOs, donors and UNICEF had
been calling the concerned parties to respect the educational institutions as Zone of
Peace. At a time when the Maoists are abducting
thousands of teachers and students, apparently to provide them political training, the
respect of Zone of Peace would have come as a welcome relief. Even though the strike has been temporarily
withdrawn, its impact will certainly be felt for a long time to come. |
Send your feedback to the
editor: spot@mail.com.np |
