KATHMANDU: Nepal Educational Republic Forum (NERF), an umbrella body of ten teachers’ organizations, said that it would shut down all private and public schools from pre-primary to higher secondary level throughout the nation for three days from tomorrow.

The teacher’s body said that since they did not get any assurance in black and white from the government side to address their demands, the pre-scheduled bandh would continue.

According to the NERF, the main reasons behind the shutting down of the educational institutions were the government’s failure to implement past agreements with various teachers’ unions and the recommendation put forward by the high level taskforce formed under the coordination of Janardan Nepal, joint secretary, Ministry of Education.

The agitating teachers also gheraoed the Department of Education at Sanothimi, to exert pressures on the government to address their demands.

Guna Raj Lohani, president, All Nepal Teachers’ Union, said that since they did not get any written assurance from the government, the scheduled bandh program would continue.

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference in the Capital today, Minister for Education, Ram Chandra Kushwaha, urged the bandh organisers to withdraw the school closure.

Minister Kushwaha said that though the demands of the bandh organisers were genuine, the way they decided to protest was not suitable. He said, “We all fought to establish loktantra in the country. What will the students learn from this banda culture?”

I will work in order to manage sufficient funds to address all kinds of problems prevalent in the education sector.”

He also urged the bandh organisers to opt for other types of protests without affecting the children’s rights to study. Suprabhat Bhandari, president of Guardians’ Association of Nepal, said, “School closure is not the appropriate way to pressurise the government to fulfill the demands as it adversely affects innocent students’ future.”

The bandh organisers, however, said that closure of schools was not their wish but the circumstances and the states’ apathy to address the recurring problems compelled them to do so.