Kathmandu, January 18

Nepal government, Ministry of Education has formally asked schools running foreign curricula to come under the existing laws and regulations of the government.

Currently, a large number of schools follow the Central Board of Secondary Education of India in the country.

There were altogether 14 schools affiliated to CBSE in Nepal, including the Kendriya Bidhyalaya on the premises of the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu.

These schools have been teaching Indian curriculum to majority Nepali students and a few students of other countries.

On top of that, except Kendriya Bidhyalaya, all other schools have not registered with any of the government authorities to evade tax as well as to teach a foreign curriculum in Nepal.

Issuing a public notice in a national daily, MoE, Last week, directed such schools to come under government rules and regulations if they wanted to run their schools within Nepali territory.

The MoE had been taking steps in the past too to bring such schools under government regulations, but it was not successful in implementing the decision.

This time around, Education Minister Giriraj Mani Pokharel presented the proposal before the cabinet which forwarded it to the Social Committee for further discussion.

Later, the committee also passed the proposal to bring them under government guideline,s thus the MoE publicly called these schools to register with the government.

In April, 2013 too, the Education Ministry had asked the schools not to admit students for the new session, but none followed the decision and the schools continued admitting students and teaching them the CBSE curriculum.

According to the notice, the schools have been asked to register themselves with government bodies within the current academic session; otherwise, they will not be allowed to enroll students in the new academic session.

The ministry has also clearly stated that if any school refuses to come under government regulations, it will not be verifying the certificates gained by those students who have passed from those schools.

Hari Lamsal, spokesperson, MoE, said the notice was published after the directive from the social committee of the cabinet to bring those schools under government law.

He said, “After this move, no school following a foreign curriculum without registration in the country will be eligible to enroll students without permission from Nepal government.”

As per the new rules for schools running foreign curriculum, the schools running classes up to grade VIII have to deposit Rs 800,000 and schools running classes up to grade XII have to deposit Rs 1.5 million in Banijya Bank of ‘Ka’ category.

Other schools running CBSE curriculum in Kathmandu are Chobar-based Modern Indian School, Tahachal-based Rupy’s International School, Bansbari-based Chandbagh School, Gyaneshwor-based Rai School, Naxal-based Alok Vidhyashram, Dhobighat-based DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwa Bharti Higher Secondary School.

Similarly other schools outside the Valley include DAV Rukmini Banarsi Kedia School in Birgunj, Delhi Public School based in Dharan, Birgunj and Biratnagar, Damodar Academy in Mahottari, Nepal Bhart Maitri Vidyalaya in Pokhara and Dedraj Sewali Devi Todi (DAV (Kvb) School in Biratnagar.

Currently around 20,000 students are studying in these schools.