Most of the 753 local levels would not have the capacity to manage the schools
Thousands of public school teachers took to the streets on Wednesday in Kathmandu in protest against some of the provisions in the School Education Bill that is registered in the House of Representatives, and their demands seem perfectly logical. Forwarding an 18-point demand, the irate teachers, who have gathered in the capital at the call of the Nepal Teachers' Federation, have called on the government to address their grievances first before tabling the bill in the Parliament for discussion. The agitation has brought the teaching-learning process in the community schools to a stop, where about five million students are enrolled in the 27,000 schools across the country. The agitation is likely to grow with each passing day as more teachers congregate in the capital in a show of force.
Among the demands, the teachers are vehemently opposed to the local levels taking charge of the school management, teachers' appointment, transfer, demotion and dismissal. Community school teachers today are appointed only after passing the grueling exams and interviews of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). Thus, their demand that any kind of decision regarding them should emanate from the federal government, just like that of the civil servants, sounds rational. Barring a few metropolitan cities like Kathmandu, most of the 753 local levels would not have the capacity to manage the schools. The way they are spending the local budget speaks volumes about their capacity, even after two local elections held after the new constitution was promulgated in 2015. Most of the local levels would not even have the human resource needed to appoint the teachers who are well qualified. There are other problems concerning the handing over of the school's management to the local government. For instance, how do you transfer a teacher from one rural municipality (Gaupalika) to another if need be? Will the other rural municipality that functions autonomously accept such a transfer? This means a teacher is stuck in one school until he retires and cannot even transfer himself to another school within a district, let alone to another province. Their whole career could be jeopardised as a result.
Also, a local government is elected for a period of five years, and the new government could change, hire or appoint teachers, or the headmaster in particular, at will under one pretext or the other. How can you ensure quality in the community schools in a situation like this, not to mention the high chances of cadres of the political parties being appointed as teachers? Party leaders have expressed solidarity with the teachers' movement and called upon the government to fulfill the genuine demands of the teachers. However, meeting the teachers' demand to decouple school education from the jurisdiction of the local government will require amending the constitution as it has provisioned that basic and secondary education shall remain the sole jurisdiction of the local government. While there is solidarity with the teachers on certain issues, it is best they discard unreasonable demands, such as making the part-time teachers permanent through internal evaluation.
Keep your vehicle fit
Mechanically-unfit vehicles - two or four wheelers - are the main cause of traffic accidents in the urban centres, major highways and rural parts of the country. Proper maintenance of a vehicle is the foremost requirement to stay safe from any kind of road accident, which is very high in Nepal. The traffic police who are mostly concentrated in the city areas also do not conduct regular inspection of private or public vehicles plying the streets. They mostly focus on whether a driver carries a valid driving licence, bill book or if s/he is driving under the influence of alcohol.
In order to minimise road accidents, the traffic police conducted a surprise check in the Kirtipur area recently, where nine out of 80 vehicles were found mechanically-unfit for plying the streets. A technical team from the Department of Transport Management inspected the tyres, brakes, steering wheel, engine and windshield wipers, among others. All of them should be in the right condition to prevent accidents. As per the traffic police, more than 1,200 mechanically-unfit vehicles have been booked in the last few months. Owners and drivers of private or public vehicles must regularly maintain their vehicles to minimise road accidents.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 22, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
