The School Education Bill was passed by the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee on Thursday. After spending almost two years, the bill will be submitted to the House of Representatives along with the report after it is passed by the committee.

Chairman Ammar Bahadur Thapa said that the bill will be submitted in the next meeting of the assembly. It was passed by the majority after the main opposition party, the Maoist Center and the RASWP and the RPP had different opinions on some issues. Although the ruling party promised to pass the bill by the committee by June 15th last year, it was stopped due to pressure to address the concerns of the Nepal Teachers' Federation and private school administrators.

The bill is about to be sent to the House of Representatives amidst the dissatisfaction of private school administrators and teachers' federations. Disagreeing with the provisions of the bill to gradually make private schools non-profit and provide full scholarships to students, the administrators have announced a protest. The private school administrators staged a protest at Maitighar in Kathmandu on Thursday. Opposition MPs have different views on this issue. Under the full scholarship provided by the private school, the issue of residential facilities could not be resolved. The

meeting has arranged that schools with residential facilities should provide free accommodation to 3 percent of students. The parliamentarians have been saying that 10 to 15 percent of students should also be given residential facilities, while the Ministry of Education has taken a stand that they cannot provide more than 2.5 percent of students.

Maoist center and RSVP have different views on the same issue. Devendra Poudel, Member of Parliament of the Maoist Center, said that if private schools cannot provide residential facilities to underprivileged students, the state should provide them. The bill provides that 10%, 12% and 15% of underprivileged and meritorious students should be given full scholarships for those who have 500 and 800 students and more.

The sub-committee agreed to discuss the bill covering everything from textbooks, transportation to residential facilities within the full scholarship. But the committee has agreed to remove the residential facility and give it to only 3 percent. RSVP MP Sumana Shrestha also has a different opinion on the same issue.

The Maoist Center and the RSVP also have different views on whether ECD facilitators should be considered as teachers. They objected to the inclusion of the word "facilitator" in the bill and were of the opinion that it should be called "child teacher". Member of Parliament Paudel said that after the arrangement to become ECD facilitators, their moral development should be ensured. Maoist Center MPs Paudel, Rekha Sharma, Mahendra Rai Yadav and Gyanu Basnet Subedi have a different opinion that the children of public representatives including teachers and employees who are paid by the government should be educated in public schools. The bill does not make such provision.