Violating the spirit of federalism guaranteed by the Constitution, the Education Bill has created a conflict in the management between government and private schools.
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A group of educationists have drawn the attention of President Ramchandra Paudel about the school education bill. Attention has been drawn to 5 points on controversial and complicated issues in the bill. They believe that 60% internal and 40% external competition is suitable for appointing teachers in public schools.
The same arrangement is also mentioned in the report of the bill passed by the Committee on Education, Health and Information Technology. But the Nepal Teachers Federation is protesting demanding 75 percent internal competition.
It is the responsibility of the state to introduce disabled teachers in schools where children of the common people are educated. Permanentizing incompetent teachers only through internal competition is not only exploitation of state resources but also cheating of ordinary parents and their children by the state. Therefore, a maximum of 60 percent of teachers should be selected from internal and 40 percent from external competition in public schools," the attention letter said.
Educationists Kedarbhakta Mathema, Vidyanath Koirala, Sushan Acharya, Amina Singh, Rajendra Dahal and Tika Bhattarai have drawn attention to President Paudel in writing. According to educationists, the school education bill is also in conflict with the compulsory and free education bill 2075. They drew the attention of the President saying that some provisions are not compatible with the spirit of federalism guaranteed by the Constitution. Although there is provision in the constitution that education up to secondary level is the sole right of the local level and education up to class 12 is free, the bill has broken it.
Educationists have pointed out that the bill has created a contradiction in the matter of private schools and suggested that it should be corrected. It does not match at first glance that private schools can also be opened under a company to open new ones after the schools are gradually being made non-profit. If the private school is to be maintained under the company, then the schools registered under the private company should operate under the company act of the state," the attention letter says, "taxes should be paid, audits should be conducted in a transparent manner, and tax exemptions given to educational institutions cannot be demanded.
Pointing out that private and public schools can move forward with co-existence, they suggested that a management framework should be adopted so that the negative effects of private schools do not fall on public schools. Educationists demand that the language of instruction should be multilingual.
Educationist Bhattarai said that he was asked to play the role of guardian of the constitution while submitting the attention letter. Education and health are the responsibility of the state. We informed the President that due to the pressure of interest groups, there have been many delays and because of the delay, it has become popular," he said. "We have drawn attention to the fact that the bill does not cover the essence of social justice and equality principles provided by the Constitution."
The educationists are of the view that the bill does not have a theoretical and ideological basis and is not forward-looking. They claim that they are trying to reverse some of the achievements in the bill. A possible agenda for discussion and passage on the bill submitted to the House of Representatives has been decided on August 25.
