On Friday, the Municipal Association and the Federation of Rural Municipalities issued a circular to the local level to promote educational activities including student enrollment and teaching in their own way.
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There are differences between the central and local governments regarding the conduct of the school academic session. The local level has refused to admit students and conduct classes from the date set by the central government, saying that the local level has the authority up to the secondary level. The Municipal Association and the Rural Municipality Federation have issued a circular to the local level on Friday to proceed with their own student admission, teaching and other educational activities. The federal government had decided to start the academic session from 15th Baisakh, to admit students from 15th to 21st, to conduct teaching from 21st and to declare Sunday a public holiday. Disagreeing with the decision, some local levels had decided to admit students from 2nd Baisakh and conduct classes before 21st Baisakh. Municipal Association President Bhim Prasad Dhungana and Rural Municipality Federation President Laxmi Devi Pandey have jointly issued a circular on the subject to the local level regarding suggestions. The circular addressed to the mayors/chairmen of municipalities and rural municipalities has suggested that educational activities be carried out accordingly as the right to school education lies with the local level as per the constitution.
‘All villages/municipalities are requested to start the admission process and resume teaching based on the local laws, local environment, needs and consultation with parents,’ the circular states. ‘Although the minimum standards for school operation will be determined by the Government of Nepal, we urge you to be confident that there will be no legal obstacles to any good work done by the local government with the aim of maintaining a higher quality than those standards.’
On Thursday, representatives of the association and federation met the Minister of Education, Science and Technology and requested facilitation on the matter. During the meeting, the Ministry stated that the current academic session will be postponed due to the shortage of petroleum products in the world market and the sharp increase in prices, and that due to the Supreme Court's order not to enroll students without enrolling, a recruitment campaign will be conducted from 15th to 21st (one week) and the teaching will start from 21st.
Representatives of the association and federation suggested that since the constitution has given the responsibility of operating and regulating school education solely to the local government, there should be necessary coordination between the governments at all levels when making decisions and issuing circulars on such issues. They drew the attention of the Minister of Education to prioritize the issuance of the Federal Education Act by the Parliament as soon as possible instead of operating school education based on the circular.
The decision to start the academic session and teaching late and to give Sundays as a holiday has greatly shortened the opening hours of schools. The Ministry of Education had issued a circular through the Ministry of Federal Affairs to implement the decision. It was directed to implement the decision through the Education and Human Resource Development Center.
Risk of students not completing their courses if Sunday is given as a holiday
The center has requested schools to prepare an annual work plan according to the new academic session, prepare a work schedule, prepare a school improvement plan, work on developing the professional capacity of teachers, and prepare a plan related to improving student learning achievement. Earlier, the government used to start the admission campaign from 1 Baisakh, while private schools used to enroll students and start teaching before that. Private school operators including PABSON, NPABSON, HISAN have also expressed dissatisfaction with the government's decision to start the academic session later this time.
