Private school owners have drawn the attention of President Ramchandra Poudel to amend the school education bill pending in the House of Representatives. National Pabson submitted a written opinion to the President on Sunday with the demand that some provisions of the bill should be amended.

Officials of National Pabson met the President and informed that the provisions regarding full scholarship, child development class (ECD), social security fund and institutional schools registered with the company are not practical and need to be reconsidered.

If the system of providing full scholarship is implemented, National Pabson has presented the opinion that the provision should be revised again with the argument that the fee will increase and the working parents will be burdened and children from middle-income families will have to drop out of school. Similarly, it is claimed that the system of limiting ECD to two years is against international norms.

According to National Pabson, the provision to make mandatory participation of all schools in the social security fund is not practical, and a suggestion to make it optional has also been submitted. It has been demanded that the schools registered and operating in the company should be continued, arrangements should be made to grant permission at different levels, and arrangements should be made to ensure that the fees are not directly affected when the scholarship is distributed.

The view that Nepal should be developed as an educational hub by including subjects like artificial intelligence (AI) at the school level was also presented to the President. Along with the report from the Committee on Education, Health and Information Technology, the bill states that private schools will gradually become non-profit and full scholarships will be given to 10 to 15 percent of students.