KATHMANDU, JUNE 18

The employees of public schools across the country who had been on strike for the past two weeks have decided to drop their protests from today onwards after the government agreed to form a talks team to address their demands.

Earlier, the school employees had announced they would stall educational activities in all the public schools from today onwards if their demand for hike in salary and other perks were not met.

However, after the government formed a talks team headed by the director general of the Education, Development and Human Resource Development Centre, the agitating staff dropped their protest.

The Nepal School Employee Council, an organisation of public school employees, on June 7, had announced its protest programme. The protest was held after the government failed to address their key issues in the budget announcement, contrary to its promise made earlier.

School accountants, caretakers, peons or other non-academic employees who were supposed to be at work at the schools were on strike in the capital. Currently, the government pays Rs 8,000 to Rs 13,000 for school employees and ECD teachers per month. Some local governments have supported employees by providing an additional Rs 7,000.

Saying that the amount was too little for them to sustain their lives, they have been protesting for several years. Last year, they had announced they would not allow the operation of schools. However, they retreated from their stance at the last moment after the government agreed to increase their salaries and other perks.

'This time we hope the government will be serious enough to address our demands. If our demands are not met now, we will be forced to continue our strike,' read a joint-press release issued by three organisations.

The protest was being conducted by Nepal School Employee Union, Nepal Community School Union and Nepal School Employee Council.

A version of this article appears in the print on June 19, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.