Most private schools were closed on Sunday because of the strike called by their teachers and other employees. They have threatened to go on an indefinite strike from Thursday if the government did not take concrete action to enforce the agreement of April 2 between their unions, the school owners, and the government. Their demands include issuance of appointment letters, payment of salaries at least on the government scales, confirmation of their services, enforcement of a code of conduct for the school operators. On their part, the school owners have also threatened to shut down the schools for good if the teachers carry out their threat. But, according to the unions of teachers and employees, the owners breached the agreement which obliged them to issue appointment letters by April 23, represent the teachers in the management committees, introduce the regulations on the terms of service.

This indicates both sides are going on a collision course. The school owners who cried hoarse over the need to declare the schools “zones of peace” when other groups enforced strikes later went on a strike of their own on occasions. Now the teachers and employees are on the warpath, and the owners are threatening to follow suit. Umesh Shrestha, the PABSON chief, while acknowledging the agreement, has started singing a different tune, saying that a 50 per cent fee cut and the pay on the government scales are not feasible. However, he rightly says that the government should come out with a clear policy on the private schools, even on the issue of nationalisation.

The fee-cut demand merits investigation, as it is hard to implement across the board, as the differentials in the fee structures of the various schools are wide. In some cases, perhaps even the demand for pay on the government scales, which are not high themselves, may be a difficult proposition. But in the private schools the teachers and employees slog more and get less, sometimes even less than the salary of a government peon, though most managements charge the students exorbitantly. Successive governments are to blame for letting the school business, one of the safest, run with little regulation. In Nepal, oddly, the schools enjoy the status of charities but function on the principles of crass commercialism. This must end. The only way to find a just settlement of the dispute is to take into account the legitimate interests of all stakeholders — the operators, the teachers and employees, the pupils and parents, and society at large. But so far, owners’ interests have, by and large, ridden over those of the other stakeholders. That explains why there is so high a sense of public outrage over the way the managements of most private schools charge their pupils. It is time the government categorised the private schools, investigated their revenues and their expenses to see whether they are giving other stakeholders their due. There is no doubt that teachers and employees should be guaranteed minimum pay and perks and fair terms and conditions. Some order needs also to be injected into the fee structures.