KATHMANDU, APRIL 25
Following the Supreme Court's order to address the teachers' demands within three days, Education, Science, and Technology Minister Raghuji Pant summoned the agitating Confederation of Nepalese Teachers for talks.
On Thursday, the day Raghuji Pant was appointed education minister, a single bench of Justice Nahkul Subedi issued a Supreme Court order directing the government to immediately address the legitimate demands of the striking teachers and create an environment in which they could return to school within three days.
According to court spokesperson Achyut Kuinkel, Thursday's order was delivered on Friday to the Prime Minister's Office, the Council of Ministers, and the Ministry of Education, among other entities named as respondents in the writ petition.
According to the court order, the government must meet the legitimate demands of the protesting teachers by Monday, and the teachers must resume regular classes.
The Education Minister Pant issued a statement on Friday afternoon calling the protesting teachers for talks. The confederation responded positively to the call and some confederation leaders were headed to the Ministry of Education for talks.
However, the police stopped the leaders of the Teachers' Confederation at the southern gate of Singha Durbar, citing they did not have the gate pass required to enter the government complex, while the Education Minister Pant waited in the ministry for the teachers.
The Education Minister had also asked the Ministry's Joint Secretary, Krishna Prasad Kafle, and others to expedite the pass to Singha Durbar. However, because the confederation's negotiation team was unable to reach the ministry, the talks could not proceed.
Meanwhile, Teachers' confederation President Laxmi Kishor Subedi confirmed on Facebook that the teachers' confederation had not organised a team to meet with Education Minister Pant.
"We would like to inform everyone that the 25-member list released by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology was not prepared by the confederation. Today, we were on our way to meet the newly appointed minister for a formal meeting, but due to special circumstances, we returned without entering the ministry," reads his status.
The Education Minister's Secretariat had sent the names of 25 people who intended to attend the talks to the Singha Durbar Gate. The police stated that only those nominated by the ministry would be allowed to enter Singha Durbar. The names of some of the teachers' confederation members who attended the talks were not on the list sent by the ministry for passes.
Although 25 people's names were sent to the gate for passes to Singha Durbar, the confederation has criticised the Ministry of Education for making up its own negotiating team for the talks.
Meanwhile, though the Supreme Court had issued an order on Thursday that the Grade XII exam should not be postponed, the National Examination Board (NEB) has already postponed the exam, publishing a new routine. The exam starts on May 4.
NEB chairperson Mahashram Sharma told the Himalayan Times that grade XII exams had been postponed due to a failure to reach an agreement between the government and the teachers.
"Exams could not be conducted in the absence of teachers. It will also have a domino impact on all sectors from SEE results publication to new enrolment," he told THT.
Due to the teachers' strike, 550,000 students across the country have been unable to complete their Grade XII exams based on the NEB calendar.
Since April 2, teachers across Nepal have been protesting relentlessly. The government has held rounds of negotiation with representatives of protesting teachers, but a solution has not been found.
