Kathmandu, March 4:

Nepali Congress (NC) president Girija Prasad Koirala today said that his party would oppose the government’s move to hand out educational certificates to the Maoist-affiliated People’s Liberation Army (PLA) cadres through the Open University.

“It will undermine the value of education,” he opined.

The veteran NC leader demanded that teachers killed during the decade-long conflict be accorded the status of martyr. “The Maoist-led government declared all those martyrs, who subscribed to their ideology,” he alleged.

He reiterated the dire need for consensus on drafting the new statute, issues relating to human rights and freedom of press. Senior NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba blamed the Maoists for the growing impunity across the nation.

“They are trying to defy the rule of law and verdict of the Supreme Court. It is clearly evident in the PLA’s fresh recruitment drive,” Deuba alleged.

Mohan Gyawali, president of Nepal Teachers’ Union, urge the government to make the temporary teachers permanent.

He trained his gun on the Minister for Education Renu Kumari Yadav for trying to snatch the jobs of temporary teachers. “Education certificates cannot be given to those who wield weapons. This is an affront to the education sector,” Gyawali explained.

“The appointment of teachers has to be directly proportionate to the number of students. The government needs to give priority to academics and the infrastructure has to be developed in earnest,” he added. Pradip Poudel, president of Nepal Students’ Union, criticised the government’s plan to levy an additional five per cent Education Service Tax on private school owners. “This has led to a growing commercialisation of the sector,” he felt.