Kathmandu, October 12:

With a view to solving problems faced by peons and assistants working in government schools, the Ministry of Education and Sports today formed a committee. The ministry has given the panel a month’s time to submit a report on problems plaguing the employees.

Spokesperson for the Education Ministry, Laba Prasad Tripathee, is the coordinator of the committee, which has officials of the Finance Ministry, the director of the Department of Education, two representatives of the Nepal School Employees Council, officials of the Education Ministry and the TU, and representatives of school management committees as its members.

The government formed the committee after about 200 representatives of the Nepal School Employees’ Council staged a sit-in in front of the Education Ministry today. Employees have so far been hired and paid by school management committees, said Ram Prasad Basyal, undersecretary at the Education Ministry, adding that the committee was formed to check whether the government can look after the employees.

The committee will conduct a feasibility study and submit a report to the Education ministry in a month, said Basyal.

Demanding that their salaries and perks be hiked, their jobs be ensured and that they be put under government service, peons and school assistants have been staging protests. The salary and perks should be on a par with their counterparts in government offices, one of the protesting employee said.