Who is to be blamed primarily?

Undoubtedly, the entire educational set up from the very primary up to the secondary school level is in a total mess in the country. The impact has of course been phenomenal. The schools have been adjourned for a week or so at the call of the Maoists’ insurgents. The closure thus has come as a result of the intimidation from the insurgents to the men manning different schools that if some of their demands were not met with, the persons thus disobeying their dictates would have to face stringent penal actions. In the process as per the media reports some of the schoolteachers, more so the headmasters, of some educational institutions have been summarily penalized and the horror created by those humiliating penalties have spread like a wildfire in the nation which definitely has caused a sort of panic in the educational institutions in the country. A rough estimate reveal that due to this threat from the Maoists quarters about thirty seven thousand schools in the country has been affected. Considering, for example, that each school had some five hundred kids studying there on an average, the total students affected by this closure comes out to be a staggering figure of eighteen lakhs. Just imagine the colossal damage that it would have caused to the students, their guardians and the likes and more so on the aspirations of the nation of producing good students who could later serve the interests of the country. The most surprising of it all is that none of the civil societies operating in the country have so far issued some sort of statement urging the insurgents to lift their ban on the operation of the schools. Neither the set of the guardians nor the concerned authorities have been able to convince the insurgents that such closures only damages the lives of the students and the students only. The Maoists’ perhaps have committed a blunder of the Himalayan sort.

However, looking at some of their demands, albeit non political ones, what could be fairly said that to some extent the men manning the schools, be it at the government or at the very private levels, have been practically squeezing money from the innocent and the underprivileged parents of the schoolgoers.

This is not a blunt accusation rather based on the facts. The government schools extort money from the parents in the name of the electricity, health care, entertainment, furniture repairs, libraries and even for the renovation of their school buildings. However, the fact is that all these were fake headings and in essence have nothing to do with providing the stated facilities to the students. It is definitely unjustifiable to extract money from the poverty stricken lot on such headings and that too when the students do not enjoy such facilities. On the other hand, the moneymaking tricks and the very ideas developed by some of the private educational institutions are really disgusting. These institutions primarily tax the parents with exorbitant fees, demand heavy payments for so many usable or even non-usable headings and above all they impose a very whimsical tax on the parents in the form of readmission. When a student is admitted in a particular school, he or she is considered to be in the same institution till he or she quits for good. This should automatically mean that the student continues to be the student of that very school and need not go thorough the readmission affair. The tragedy is that these students pay annually to get admitted in their own school. Just consider the collection of the amount from such an unethical affair. Unfortunately, the government and the private schools both mercilessly impose their dictates onto the heads of the parents who face problems of managing two meals a day. Under such circumstances, those guardians who were hit hard by the schools of various sorts are silently appreciating what the Maoists have done. It is these underlying messages perhaps which has emboldened the insurgents to go in on for such moves. Perhaps it is the fear psychosis again, which might have caused panic among the responsible section of the society to dare to issue statements against the school closure. The situation has been that the people at large prefer not to speak against the insurgents deliberate or otherwise. It is this factor that is being cashed in on by the insurgents. However, this should not mean that people have sided with the Maoists. The fact is that since the government did not come to their rescue vis-à-vis the school phenomenon and instead the people, read the most common citizens, could find some one talking and retaliating with the school administration in their favor perhaps prompted the lay men to keep a total stoic silence. It is here that the government under Koirala perhaps has failed. The government should have directed the schools under it and outside to ease the financial burdens of the people who wish to send their kids to the schools and could not pay the amounts which others from the well to do domain pay easily.

Finally, the present act of the Maoists could simply be termed as immature one and that too taken in a hurry. They could have pressed the school administration in so many other ways than the one they have adopted now. Closing the schools and that too under threat is unacceptable. The schools must remain open. The government must have say in the administration of the schools at least on the front of determining or fixing the rates of the admission fees and the likes. The poor people possess every right to send their kids to schools that were well within their financial strength.

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