Nawalparasi, September 30:

Educational institutions in the districts remained closed today due to the one-day education sector bandh called by the pro-Maoist Teachers’ Democratic Forum (TDF). Lakhs of students were affected by the bandh.

The TDF has called the bandh for making permanent temporary teachers in schools of the country, aside from other demands. In Nawalparasi district, schools and colleges all remained closed. In Chitwan, schools up to the Plus Two-level were closed. TDF Chitwan district member Purno Dawadi said the forum has demanded that private teachers be given salary on a par with government teachers and non-teaching employees be given salary as per grade, among others.

Due to the forum bandh, the second semester exams of private and boarding schools scheduled for today were rescheduled. The exams will be held tomorrow, said Bharatpur English School Society president Raghu Acharya.

In Bardiya, forum activists barged into Banglamukhi Radhakrishna Tharu secondary school at Gulariya and hustled out the students from the classrooms telling them to go home. The Bardiya district education office said nearly all schools in the district were closed.

It was the same story in Lamjung. Teachers in local schools said the schools had to be closed under pressure from the Maoists. Ditto in Dhankuta and Bara.

Meanwhile, PABSON Ramechhap district chairman Lok Nath Upadhyaya said that the second semester exams slated for today were disrupted due to the bandh. He added that things will normalise by tomorrow and that the exams will be rescheduled.