Kathmandu, June 4:

The government and teachers’ unions today agreed to form a nine-member task force to look for alternatives to the school registration provision.

The decision to form the panel was taken during formal talks between the government and the unions. The panel would consist of representatives from the agitating teachers’ unions and private school owners and headed by government representative Laba Prasad Tripathi.

“The task force will work out on the alternatives to the current school registration procedures,” said Tripathi.

The report the panel will submit in a week will be discussed in a meeting scheduled for June 11.

The government had made mandatory the registration of private schools under the Company Act 2002. However, the agitators are demanding annulment of the provision. “The task force will come up with possible alternatives to the provision for the registration of schools,” said a member of the teachers’ talks team.

“The task force will find a middle path keeping in view the welfare of the investors, parents and teachers,” the member said. According to him, they also discussed issues of the private school teachers. “We will, however, have to hold more discussions on this in the next rounds of talks.”