Kathmandu - In the last two weeks, the news of action against party-affiliated teachers, new admission campaign at the school level, 12th class examination, activities of Tribhuvan University (TU) and local governments' decisions regarding schools got priority in the media.

A letter by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) through the Education and Human Resource Development Center (CEHRD) directing the Education Development and Coordination Units in all the districts to take action against teachers affiliated to political parties got priority in the media. The Ministry had decided to take action against 12 teachers who were in the executive positions of  political parties. The Education Act prohibits teachers from actively affiliating with the parties. It was mentioned in the news that action was initiated after complaints from various agencies that the teachers were general as well committee members of the parties- and that many were the delegates to the Partys' conventions.

In an editorial on the same subject in Kantipur, it was suggested that instead of taking the responsibility of providing quality education, if a teacher continues to be a member of the party, there should be no option but to resign. Obviously, the news carried that the Nepal Teachers' Federation (NTF) and the officials of the teachers' organization protested the directive given by the Ministry for not letting them to join in professional organizations of teachers. There was news that NTF members 'close' to UML were absent due to the lack of mutual agreement regarding representation in the Second National Convention of NTF which started last Monday. It was mentioned in the news that the three-day program of the convention was completed without the president of the Federation.

There was news that the checking of SEE answer sheets has resumed in Kathmandu and Lalitpur.  That was halted by the teachers' agitation demanding to increase remuneration  for checking answer sheets. It was mentioned in the news that the teachers have returned to work after the National Examination Board assured that the process of increasing the remuneration has started.
Cluster type of news - School, HE, Municipality, MoEST

There was news that 20 teachers working in Dhangadhimai Municipality of Siraha who were appointed as  privately funded (by parental contribution)  and those paid under Conditional  Grants have not been paid their salaries for 9 months. It was mentioned in the news that  reason was the lack of internal resources and other problems in the Municipality.

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) warning teachers not to work elsewhere during school hours, raped of teenaged girl student of three schools in Dolakha within a year were also teacher related news in the media.

It was reported that a total of 391K students, 197K female students and 194K male students, have participated in the class 12 examination that started last Friday. Similarly, it was mentioned in the news that more than 100K students are taking the exam for improving grades. There was a news that a fake examinee has been arrested from Thulo Bharyang in Kathmandu, and there was another news that Gopal Bahadur Mahat, the principal of Prolific Secondary School in Dhumbarahi, Kathmandu, has used a fake examinee in the place of his brothers in Class 12 exam. There was news that the technical team of the Ministry and the Examination Board has selected 144 Examination Centers in Kathmandu through an automatic method after receiving complaints about financial manipulation to select the Centers.

There was news that the pass rate of Tribhuvan University (TU) is low. A 78 percent of the students who are in higher education studied in TU. The pass out rate of the TU is only 30 percent, the news said referring the University Grants Commission,. It is mentioned in the news that pass out rate of Patan Institute of Health Sciences and Karnali Institute of Health Sciences is100%, while BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences is 92%, Midwest Farwest and Sanskrit universities are 23%, 21% 31% respectively.

There was news that TU Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof. Dr. Kesharjung Baral has started discussions with various student organizations urging them to help make TU a 'Padlocked-free University'.. However, it was mentioned in the news that the forced padlocking by the student unions close to the ruling and opposition parties in Patan United Campus, Patandhoka and ASCOL (Amrit) Campus in Lainchour has continued.

There was also news of a general clash between Nepal Student Union (NSU) and the Free Students' Union of Shankardev Campus,in Kathmandu. It was mentioned in the news that the clash broke out when the president of the campus student union tried to prevent the NSU representative  giving  a complain to the the Campus Chief about the financial irregularities in the Campus Union. 

Similarly, there was news that the student organization close to the UML, has protested that the TU Service Commission trying to fill posts of vacant Professors contradicting the existing procedures. The Service Commission has recently advertised for nine posts. According to the published news, it has been accused of making the process favorable to certain Associate Professors, ignoring the latest revision of the procedure.

There was a news in Gorkhapatra that TU VC Prof. Dr. Kesharjung Baral has put forward a plan to decentralize TU to Provinces to make the educational program effective. It was mentioned in the news that the TU in the province will have the right to monitor the educational quality of affiliated campuses of the TU in the respective provinces, and to help in the effective implementation of the educational program.

Nodnath Trital wrote a letter to the editor and suggested that the vision paper and four-year action plan of TU's VC should adopt it as a common document by all the three officials and should be made public through the website and adopted by all stakeholders and implements it. 

Similarly, there was news that Bagmati Province has drafted a Bill to establish Bagmati Province University..

There was news that the names of three individuals have been recommended for the vacant post of the VC of the Midwest University (MU). by the VC Selection and Recommendation Committeecomprised of Prof. Dr. Dhruv Kumar Gautam, Prof.Dr.Nanda Bahadur Singh and Prof. Dr. Dev Bahadur Khadka.

There was news that addressing the 12th Convocation of Purvanchal University, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said that it is necessary to change the curriculum in accordance with the times in order to stop the intellectual exodus out of the country seen recently. Similarly, in another news, that "the government is making necessary preparations to build an integrated health science institute and remove duplication in medical education and health services for the management, operation and regulation of all medical and health science institutes in the country to develop Nepal as a hub of medical education", Prime Minister Dahalwas quoted saying.

According to the news, the MoEST has decided to write to the Abuse of Authority Investigation Commission to investigate against 42 people following recommendations by the Medical Education Investigation Commission (MEIC) formed under the chairmanship of Gauri Bahadur Karki to investigate irregularities of medical education. In other news, the Supreme Court has issued a short-term interim order in the name of the government and TU not to take any action against TU's Chief Legal Advisor Mr Narayan Khanal for the time being. Accusing Khanal of giving a wrong opinion to the officials of TU regarding providing affiliations to colleges, the MEIC had recommended that Khanal should not be appointed to a government or constitutional position in the future.
In the first ever Convocation of Patan Health and Science Institute, 485 graduate and post-graduate students were awarded degrees, the news mentioned. According to the news, students who have obtained degrees of MBBS, MS, AD, MPH, BSc and BNS are among those who were initiated.

Halesi Tuwachung Municipality of Khotang has awarded a scholarship of one lakh rupees each to two students studying technical education; Jhapa Rural Municipality (RM) has also provided scholarships to 630 people studying in classes 11 and 12 of three community schools. Similarly, it was mentioned in the news that the educational activities have started to become effective after nurses were assigned to 51 public schools in Sindhupalchok.

There was news that private schools have disobeyed the decision of Itahari sub-metropolitan city to make same uniforms for all the students of the sub-metropolitan schools. According to the news, private school organizations have instructed private schools not to implement the decision regarding school uniforms. In the program of the Private School Teachers' Organization (ISTU), it was published that the teachers are finding it difficult to stay in the profession due to the lack of training, educational materials and salary,  quoted in an another news.

There was news in Gorkhapatra that the owners of 203 private schools operating in Kathmandu metropolis have contacted the metropolis to change the English name to Nepali. Last week, the metropolis had instructed to change the English name of the school to Nepali. It was mentioned in the news that out of 512 schools from pre-primary to class 12 in the metropolis, 324 school names are in English. Similarly, there was also news that the Kathmandu Metropolis decided not to charge more than the 1-month student fee as enrollment fee, schools within the Metropolitan City have. 

Similarly, there was news that Nepalgunj sub-metropolitan city has classified the private schools and fixed the fees. It was mentioned in the news that according to the private school standards and guidelines 2080, the fees have also been determined by classifying the private schools.

There was news that two students studying at Ranipauwa Secondary School of Tripurasundari RM of Dhading have built a four-wheeled electric vehicle with the help of a science teacher. It was mentioned in the news that they built an electric car by collecting junk materials. Similarly, there was news of various municipalities that Malika RM of Gulmi taught students to make dunatapari (leaf plates and bowls) from Sal leaves based on the local curriculum 'Hamro Malika' from classes 1 to 8, modern computer labs have been established in three community schools in Myagdi with the help of donors, the Government Sanskrit Secondary School at Matihani in Mahottari has taken forward the program of Ayurveda stream. There is news that the school students in the central area of Banke National Park are in a dangerous situation due to wild animals. Similarly, various municipalities have adjusted schools also news came in the last two weeks. It was reported that people holding public positions in 5 local levels of Gorkha have made a rule that their children must be educated in public schools.

This year, 12 million textbooks have been distributed in all 77 districts of the country, the news said citing Janak Education Material Centre while 1.33 million textbooks were distributed in the previous academic session. It was mentioned in the news that Curriculum Development Center has issued a notice and requested all schools and parents not to use textbooks that are not approved by the Center.

Materials published and aired last week included that there would be problems in school operations following a circular of the MoEST  prohibiting community schools from charging fees to students. Last week, Nepal Television reported public interest in public schools is growing.

There was news that the MoEST plans to enroll 600K children in Class 1 this year through the enrollment campaign. According to the data prepared by the CEHRD it is mentioned in the news that about 70 percent of 600K children have been through Early Childhood Development Centers. The number of children who have reached the age of five is 582K and the School going age children who are out of school is 213K, according to the news in Gorkhapatra.

According to an another news report, it was mentioned that Route children were deprived of the opportunity of education because they could not be included in the student enrollment campaign. There are still 8,277 children out of school in Sarlahi district. It was mentioned in the news that schools in all 20 municipalities of the district are conducting a door-to-door campaign to enroll those children in schools while the student enrollment campaign is going on.

The fact that a large number of enrolled students do drop out of the school has also raised questions about the effectiveness of the government's student enrollment efforts. In an editorial published in Kantipur on this subject, students can be sustained only if the child-friendly environment of school, teaching method, the responsible teachers and the school shows interest to irregular students. In the editorial of Gorkhapatra, it was thought that it is inevitable to conduct such campaigns to discourage the growing attraction towards private schools.

An Online Khabar reported that provisions for applying Temporary Residence (TR) Graduate Visa being provided to foreign students after study in Australia, has been changed drastically. Previously, students aged up to 50 years could apply for the TR visa, now it has been reduced to 35, according to the news. It was also in the news that the rule of reducing the residency period to two years will be implemented from July 1; students completing their master's degree used to get   a TR visa for three-years.

Gorkhapatra has published opinion of Shanti Krishna Adhikari that the plan of those who have studied abroad is considered special in Nepal and experts who download foreign education websites and present the curriculum accordingly are regarded as educationists and their suggestions are imposed. 

In the Gorkhapatra there is an article on early childhood education. It says that there is a provision for the operation of early child development and care centers (ECDC) for the overall development of children, but there is policy confusion and ambiguity regarding the age at which children can be admitted. It was pointed out in the article that Montessori, Play Group, Nursery, LKG, etc. run with private investment, enroll children from the age of two years and involve them in textbook-based reading and writing activities from the beginning. ECDCs should not be run this way, the author agues. 

The purpose of this news review is to classify and synthesize the educational content of the week and provide objective comments from the point of view of social justice and creative padagogy to the policy makers and stakeholders in one place. In this joint effort of Center for Education Policy and Practice (CEPP) and Edukhbar, the news of daily newspapers Kantipur, Gorkhapatra and The Himalayan Times, online news portals Online Khabar, Setopati and Ratopati and Himalaya TV and Nepal Television from 14-26 April 2024 are covered - Editor.