Kathmandu, June 20 :

The Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) is planning to address all educational demands put forth by various unions, student bodies and university teachers through a series of dialogues with the latter.

The joint secretary at the Education Ministry, Laba Prasad Tripathee, said preparations to hold the dialogues are on.

“A series of dialogues will take place after two weeks when preliminary discussions with various organisations who have forwarded their demands are held,” Tripathee said.

Eight student unions have submitted a memorandum demanding fulfilment of the 16-point charter of educational demands and the implementation of the 51 demands met by the government earlier.

The 16-point demands were not met by the government. The demands include providing free education up to the secondary level, more government funds in public schools, same curriculum in private and public schools, policy encouraging high-ranking officials to send their children to public educational institutions and improvement of the environment in government schools.

Students of the Mahendra Sanskrit University (MSU) had also submitted a 42-point charter of educational demands to the education ministry. The students demanded the formation of a high-level committee to investigate the alleged financial embezzlement and corruption that took place in the university since 1991.

They also demanded that the property of the Teendhara Sanskrit Hostel be returned to the MSU, end to political interference in autonomous and academic institutions and action against teachers and employees of the university possessing fake academic certificates.

They also demanded that modern subjects like journalism, language, archaeology, and computers be included in the curriculum.

The teachers’ unions have also forwarded various demands to the Ministry.