KATHMANDU: CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli on Saturday has expressed his concerns over the widespread trend of raising the cost of education under various pretexts.

Inaugurating the ninth general assembly of the Nepal Health Service Cooperative Ltd here, Oli said the students are being forced to go abroad to pursue higher education which obviously costs more than at home owing to problems in the process of granting affiliations.

The UML Chair added that the act of withholding affiliation to the Manmohan Memorial Medical College while it has already acquired a letter of intent for the same from the concerned ministry for running MBBS classes was unjustified. The Manmohan Memorial Medical College is run by the Cooperative.

On the occasion, Minister for Education Chitra Lekha Yadav said the Cooperative's step to work in education and health sectors, which remain the fundamental factors of life, are positive.

Cooperative's Chairman Rajendra Prasad Pandey said the Cooperative established in 2005 with an objective for working in educational and health sectors has been running eight educational programmes under the Tribhuvan University and the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training.

The Cooperative has been operating a 300-bed hospital in Swayambhu area, and 100-bed hospitals in Thamel of the Capital and Jhapa district.