Himalayan News Service

Nawalparasi, January 2

Confusion over the school syllabi in the district persists even after the academic calendar comes to a close.

Compulsory subjects, moral studies and civics, at the lower secondary level, have not been taught in more than 50 per cent of the private and government schools. With barely two months to go for the district-level examinations there still exists confusion among the teachers regarding these subjects.

ANNFSU (R), the sister organisation of the Maoists, had opposed Sanskrit, which had been taught for the past many years, as a part of the syllabi. The Ministry of Education had replaced the same with moral studies and civics from this academic session.

'The decision of replacing Sanskrit was not circulated in schools as it happens to be the duty of the schools to come to know about it,' an officer at the District Education Office, Rajendra Sharma, said. Class eight mark-sheets in the district-level examinations will not be valued if civics and moral studies are not included, he said.

The schools did not receive any information from the DEO to include the two subjects, said Bhim Lal Kandel, a teacher at the Biswo Jyoti Boarding School.

Only few schools of the District have included the two subjects in their syllabi since October.

Association of Private and Residential Schools (PABSON) of Nawalparasi has not circulated information regarding the inclusion of the two subjects to schools affiliated with it.

However, Principal Bhoj Raj Dahal of Siddhartha Residential School, who is also an advisor of PABSON, said he has been teaching the subjects in his school for the past 15 days.