ILAM, April 27, 2005

Even though the new academic session began half-a-month ago, the private and boarding schools in the district have not opened. The continued closure of these schools has affected 25,000 students and 700 teachers. While the private and community-run schools remain closed in rural areas of the district, schools in urban areas have not opened up for new admissions. “The principals and guardians are for the continuation of classes, but the schools are not ready,” the district president of the Privateand Boarding Schools Organisation of Nepal (PABSON), Milan Chand Sanyasi, said. According to the statistics of the previous academic year, of the 83,220 students, 24,966 studied in private schools. “Half of them are estimated to have joined the government schools this year,” the concerned headmasters said, adding that the government schools are facing as hortage of manpower and other resources. According to the PABSON, a dozen private schools in the district have announced closure. There are 68 private schools in Ilam. Meanwhile, a report from Chitwan said the Maoists were urged to withdraw the strike imposed on private and boarding schools immediately. The Chitwan chapter of the Private and Boarding School Organisation of Nepal (PABSON) organised an hour-long sit-in at Pulchwok, Narayangarh. Teachers, students and representatives of different organisations had taken part in the sit-in.

CoE agrees to stick to SAFTA schedule

Kathmandu, April 27, 2005

Following three-days of brain storming sessions among senior officials from the SAARC nations, the Committee of Experts (CoE) has agreed to implement the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement within the agreed time frame. The eighth round of SAFTA CoE meeting that concluded today in Kathmandu, has agreed to enter into a regional FTA between the seven South Asian countries from January next year. The meeting has also been able to evolve a consensus in addressing three major outstanding issues. “This meeting was successful compared to previous meetings in evolving a consensus on major outstanding issues like the rules of origin, sensitive list and technical assistance (TA) to least developed countries,” a participant of the meeting told The Himalayan Times. The issue of TA has been completed, as the developing member countries agreed to provide training and consultancy services to LDCs to compensate for their immediate trade losses. LDCs have to present details of required TA, particularly on training and consultancy by May 10 to the SAARC secretariat.