Kathmandu, March 16

Obliging to a request from the Traffic Police, the government is mulling over changing school timing in a bid to ease traffic during peak hours inside Kathmandu Valley and other major cities across the country.

Traffic police has proposed to fix the school timing from 9:00am to 4:00pm As per the current school timings, classes start from 10:00am and end at 4:00pm.

Traffic police had long been saying that rescheduling school timing could help solve the traffic woes in city areas.

A Traffic Management Work Plan drafted by traffic police had submitted its report to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers a few months ago suggesting that schools should start their classes an hour earlier than the usual time.

In line with the suggestion, the Cabinet had formed a technical committee, which had later recommended that all school buses inside Kathmandu valley must enter school premises by 9:00am.

Officials at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, however, had said that the idea of starting school an hour earlier in the morning was not practically possible in the middle of the session.

A close aide of Education Minister Girirraj Mani Pokharel told THT that the ministry was thus preparing to reschedule school timing from the new academic session.

“The ministry is set to introduce new timing for schools very soon,” the source said.

Mahesh Prasad Dahal, education secretary, said that the ministry was still discussing and studying the possibility of starting school classes from 9:00am. “If we have to introduce the new timing, it will be implemented across the country. We can’t bring a separate rule only for urban areas. But, I am hopeful that the new timing will be introduced from the next academic year,” Dahal said.

The ministry has also formed a committee to give suggestions regarding change in the school timing.