LALITPUR: Demanding ratification of the past agreements made with the government, Nepal Educational Republican Forum (NERF) on Thursday made public its protest programme that includes the closure of all community and institutional schools across the country on Sunday.

The protest is a bid to put pressure on the government to implement the 46-page recommendation submitted to the then education minister Renu Kumari Yadav last December. The task force was formed under Janardan Nepal, the joint-secretary at the Ministry of Education, said RB Bhandari, vice president, NERF. He further said that the protest aims at drawing government attention to the current issues in the education sector that includes scrapping Education Act 2028, nationalization of institutional schools, change in provision of the Company Act while registering schools, salary increment for the private school teachers at par with the government standard and free schooling till secondary level, among others.

Unveiling the schedule, Indra Raj Bhattarai, central vice president, ISTU, said the Sunday protest programme would commence with a mass gathering at Khula Manch in the capital, with a huge participation of teachers from the community and institutional schools of the Kathmandu Valley and the adjoining districts. The mass rally would then march to Keshar Mahal, the housing building of the Ministry for Education, to stage a sit-in, he added.

Bhattarai warned of more rigorous protest programmes if the government fails to address the teachers’ causes. He also demanded that proper provisions be made in the new constitution for the same.

Nepal Educational Republican Forum is the conglomerate of several educational institutions and stakeholders including Nepal Institutional Teachers Union (ISTU), All Nepal Teachers’ Organisation (ANTO), Madhes Shikshak Sangathan and Pragatisheel Shikshak Sangathan.