Kathmandu, February 22:

Minister for Education and Sports Pradip Nepal today expressed doubts that the constituent assembly election will be peaceful.

“I cannot say whether the election will be peaceful but the election must be held on schedule,” he said, addressing the general conference of the UNESCO National Commission today.

He added that Nepal never needed UNESCO more before because this is the time when normalcy is returning after the conflict, unrest and culture of agitation. “We have to learn the basics of culture now and give continuity to our tradition and civilisation,” Nepal said.

He suggested the UNESCO National Commission to stop focusing on travels and speeches.

“We want it to concentrate less on speeches and more on work, less on travelling and more on activities,” Nepal said.

Newly-appointed country representative for UNESCO Colin Caisar said he would love to extend support in the fields of education, culture and science.

Assistant general secretary of the commission Bhimlal Gurung said the commission had received support of $165,000 last year for four programmes.

An agreement was made between the commission and the Paris-based UNESCO to execute 10 participatory programmes. Out of them, eight programmes have been executed. Dr Mangla

Manandhar, coordinator of the Science Section of the commission, said the commission should concentrate on evaluation of projects.