Tarakeshwar municipality has refused to allow Nepal Ratna School, which was opened to provide free education to orphans and children from underprivileged families, to conduct class 9.

The school management has complained that they have not been able to get permission for 3 years due to the personal interests of the mayor of the municipality, Krishnahari Maharjan.

Ratna School is run under the Public Educational Guthi. The school provides free education up to class 8 by collecting support from foreign donors. 400 students from 42 districts are studying in the school. The local level has the authority to grant permission to operate schools and increase or decrease classes. A manager of Ratna School said that Mayor Maharjan refused to grant permission as it would disturb his private school. According to Guthi member Kami Sherpa, nearby Ratna School, the Rosemary School funded by Mayor Maharjan is running.

Tarkeshwar-8 Ward President Shyamakrishna Sapkota, Municipal Education Department Head Padma Bahadur Khatri in the presence of the management committee meeting held in 2079 gave consent to allow the school to run class 9. The City Education Committee chaired by the Mayor has filed a complaint with the Education Minister Vidya Bhattarai, Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, and Human Rights Commission for not giving permission. A petition has also been filed in the Supreme Court on this matter. On Chait 25, 2080, the municipality instructed the school not to conduct class 9. Sherpa, a member of Guthi, said that although they have been enrolling students and teaching based on the decision to give consent for

permission, they have not received official approval. According to the school, 9 students are studying in class 9. 22 students were enrolled. 13 people left the class because they did not get permission," he said. "We are teaching the students who were admitted last year in class 10 in the neighboring school." Sherpa informed that his students were admitted to Gyansarovar Mavi so that they would not be deprived of SEE because the school did not get permission.

The head of the education department, Khatri, said that the school was not approved due to the lack of designated teaching staff. It was decided to give permission first. During the monitoring, no subject teacher was found,' he said, 'Now this matter is pending in the court.' There is no great reason not to give permission. Private schools are running in a worse condition than Ratna School," he said. "The infrastructure is solid. Permission can be given on the condition of having a teacher. But the mayor doesn't want to hear the name of the school. Meera Ghartimagar, the principal of the school, said that 16 teachers are working in the school.

The Supreme Court had given an interim order on May 3 last not to implement the instructions given by the municipality not to conduct class 9. The bench of Judge Sapna Pradhan Malla has issued an interim order not to implement the directives of the municipality as it is related to ensuring access to education and the future of the children studying in Ratna School. Since then, students have been denied access to government data, registration form and participation in SEE due to lack of permission to conduct classes.

On December 18, the National Human Rights Commission has recommended that the municipality be granted permission to conduct additional classes after monitoring whether the necessary conditions and qualifications have been met. It has also been directed to provide the information to the commission within 3 months. Mayor Maharjan said that because they did not meet the academic and physical standards, Ratna School was denied permission. "When I went for monitoring, the building was not seen enough. The teacher was not found. The school was run on NGO model. The accounts were not found to be proper,' he said, 'it was stopped after not seeing the conditions to give permission.'