Dhangadi, May 3

Hundreds of students at private boarding schools in Kailali will be missing classes for three consecutive days as school operators have decided to close schools due to the disagreement between the government and student organisations on fee hike.

Student organisations have been protesting against the fee hike by private schools. The school operators of the district announced the three-day education strike protesting the agreement beginning from yesterday. More than 100,000 students of 340 schools in the district will be affected due to the protest.

“We had no alternative, but to resort to closing down. The agreement is discouraging and against private school operators. If all the agreements reached between them are implemented strictly, all the schools of the district will be shut,” said Dilli Raj Regmi, Kailali PABSON chairperson.

According to another source, many private schools change their textbooks at the beginning of every academic session.

In an agreement between the students organisations and the government, it was decided that the schools should revoke the fee hike and fix new fee ceiling within a month.

If schools did not abide by the rules and regulations, their registration would be scrapped. The fee ceiling for a primary school is Rs 1,000, Rs 1,300 for lower secondary and Rs 1,600 for secondary school.  They were demanding that 10 per cent scholarship was a must and teachers were to be paid as per the government’s rule.

PABSON Chairman accused the Ministry of Education of showing apathy towards the fee fixation committee. However, parents have demanded resumption of classes, withdrawing from the agitation. “It is a matter of extreme irresponsibility on the part of the operators that they should shut the schools,” said Rosh Upreti, a parent.

Another parent, Khagendra Awasti, said that though the private schools played an important role in changing the education system in Nepal, it was wrong to charge fee under various titles. Awasti demanded action against those schools which didn’t follow the directives issued by the Supreme Court. Kailali District Education Officer Man Singh Bista said discussions with the school operators were under way.