Kathmandu, August 17

More than 10,000 fresh college graduates will be deprived of the opportunity to become school teachers if the Education (Ninth Amendment) Bill the government registered today at the Parliament Secretariat is passed.

According to sources at the Ministry of Education, the new education bill proposes to give temporary teachers permanent status. Temporary teachers have been demanding since 2006 that they be given permanent status through internal examinations.

The new bill proposes holding internal exams for all temporary teachers who joined the service between August 6, 2004 and January 24, 2010. With respect to   those temporary teachers who entered the service after January 24, 2010, the bill proposes holding internal exams for   60 per cent temporary teachers and open competition for 40 per cent teachers.

As per the existing law, open competition should be held for 51 per cent of vacancies and internal exams for the remaining 49 per cent of vacant posts.

The bill also proposes to offer golden handshake to temporary teachers even if they failed the exams. The bill proposes that teachers who serve for more than 15 years as temporary teachers be given amount equal to the salary of 45 days for each year they have served.

Likewise, the bill proposes that temporary teachers who have served for 10 years and less than 15 years be given amount equal to one month’s salary for each year they have served. Similarly, the temporary teachers who serve for more than five years will get amount equal to half month’s salary for each year they have served if the bill is passed.

The existing laws give temporary teachers two options:  either to participate in internal competition or opt for a golden handshake.

According to Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education Hari Lamsal, the government will have to spend Rs 8 billion to offer golden handshake to temporary teachers.

The government registered the new bill in an attempt to pacify the agitating temporary teachers who have been staging hunger strike for the past 16 days. The agitating teachers have demanded, among other things, that the teachers’ recruitment examination scheduled to be held from August 26 under the existing education law be halted.

Meanwhile, agitating temporary teachers said that they would not end their fast-unto-death until they get full text of education amendment bill. Senior Vice-chair of Temporary Teachers Struggle Committee Surendra Adhikari told The HimalayanTimes that they would take a decision on ending their strike tomorrow.

There are more than 26,000 temporary teachers serving in government schools across the country.