Community school teachers held responsible

Kathmandu, May 9

Education Secretary Bishwo Prakash Pandit today alleged that teachers were trying to rule over the administration by virtue of being members of political parties.

Speaking at a programme organised here today by the Parliamentary Committee on Women, Children, Senior Citizens and Social Welfare and Education Pages to take suggestions from parliamentarians on School Sector Development Plan (SSDP) that will be implemented from new fiscal 2016/17, Pandit said that teachers were less active in classrooms and more actively involved in exercising their political power in the administration of the education ministry.

He admitted that the Ministry of Education was not able to control teachers who were aligned to certain political parties. “Teachers are leaders and want to rule us,” he said, adding, “They are more loyal to political parties and interested in political activities rather than the teaching-learning process and enhancing the quality of education.”

He also questioned how the education quality would improve in community schools when teachers were leaders more than tutors.

He asked parliamentarians of various political parties, “Why is the result of institutional schools where teachers are paid half the salary of community school teachers better?

Pandit held teachers responsible for the deteriorating quality of education in community schools. He also said that the current allocation of budget for the education sector was not enough.

The government had allocated Rs 98 billion for education for the current fiscal.

He suggested that the government add Rs 27 billion to the existing budget to implement educational programmes mentioned in policy and programmes announced yesterday.

Parliamentarians also stressed the need to increase the education budget.

Prof Ganesh Man Gurung, the CPN-UML member of parliament said the government should allocate at least 15 per cent of the national budget for the education sector.

“In other countries, governments allocate 20 to 25 per cent of the national budget for education but in our country it is decreasing,” he said.

Ranju Kumari Jha, president, Parliamentary Committee on women, children, senior citizen and social welfare said they were going to incorporate tough provisions to restrict teachers from politics.