School Education Bill halted again since the concerned Parliamentary Committee couldn't make a consensus on the terms of scholarships to be provided by private schools; Publication of Class 12 results; Sharing of the VCs’ posts between the ruling UML and NC, were the news that became a media priority last week.

Kathmandu - Although writing of the report on the School Education Bill (SEB), which is in the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee (EHITC) of House of Representative (HoR), has been written in accordance with the consensus among lawmakers of the Committee on most points, there has been no consensus on whether or not to include a condition that students be provided with full-board facilities as part of the full scholarship provided by private schools. Gorkhapatra reported that this has once again halted the process of drafting the act. On the issues made consensus by the EHTIC are private schools will be made service-oriented, public welfare-oriented, and gradually non-profit, and ECED before admission to grade 1 will be conducted as a two-year program in public and private schools, the Education Development and Coordination Unit at the district to remain in place and the School Education Examination (SEE) will to be conducted at the provincial level. Similarly, teachers are provisioned to be promoted through three methods - internal competition, seniority, and performance and efficiency are other issues reached to a consensus. 

The issues of whether private schools should provide full board facilities while providing full scholarships to students and what the career development path for Early Childhood Development teachers are yet to be finalized. Minister for Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) Raghuji Panta and Shyam Kumar Ghimire, a member of the EHITC and Chief Whip of the Nepali Congress including a few lawmakers, are not in favor of including full board facilities under the scholarship. However, the news stated that a controversy arose after 19 out of 25 MPs on the committee voted in favor of including it in the scholarship. The proposal brought by the MoEST has stated that the scholarship should cover tuition fees, examination fees, textbooks and educational materials, uniforms, transportation, and all the fees charged by the school and all the facilities provided by the concerned school. The Committee had directed the secretariat to write a report on 7 August, keeping in mind the issues that remained to be agreed upon in the Bill.

Nepal Teachers Federation (NTF) and private school investors have announced a protest after not all provisions of the Bill were favorable to them. Both, Private and Barding School Organizations of Nepal (NPABSON and PABSON) have demanded that the word "full scholarship" should be removed from the Bill altogether.

After private school investors threatened to stage a protest if the provision include for full scholarships and gradually transferring private schools to nonprofit trusts, the EHITC has resumed discussions on the already finalized issue of converting private schools to non-profit trusts, the news mentioned.

Binay Prasad Kusiyat has written an article in Kantipur that the state has failed to make education service-oriented by regulating and managing private investment.

The SEB, which has been in limbo for nearly two years since it was registered in the House, is not able to address issues such as ensuring the right to education, children's learning, and efficient governance of public schools because of Private school investors and public school teachers’ lobby to make the act in their favor.

Irony is that the ruling and opposition MPs, including former ministers who had different opinions earlier, did not expressed difference in decisive moments. Was this all along was just a show? And what do the MPs who tabled so many amendments think now? Has the media lost its memory or is it simply not trying to report anything other than what is visible on the surface? Neither the media has expressed its concerns. 

There are also some positive provisions in the Bill. Everyone needs be vigilant from the moment the Bill proceeds further to ensure that such provisions are not manipulated. Just as vested interests played a role in the Civil Service Bill, it cannot be said that they will not play such a role in the SEB when preparing the report.

As the parliamentary committee prepared to finalize the SEB, the NTF and private school investors are also lobbying hard with the leaders of the main political parties and/or influencing individual MPs to put provisions favorable to them. They are threatening to stage a protest and even close educational institutions if the Bill does not contain provisions that favor their interests. Parliament is the supreme body that makes the laws necessary for the country. The laws formulated by the Parliament should be in the interest of the country and as specified by the Constitution, rather than in the interest of any interest group. The Constitution states that all children have an equal right to quality education. There is a need of Education Act that benefit the children of citizens, rather than benefiting any group.

It seems necessary to reach out to the MPs to bring in laws that meet the current needs of the country and the provisions of the Constitution, rather than being influenced by threats of shutdowns and strikes. This is also an opportunity to elaborate the issues that are not categorically specified but have clear intentions in the Constitution. How well we utilize this opportunity will determine the future of our education and our country. 

The arm has already been swallowed by vested interests. It seems a big challenge for well-intentioned lawmakers to protect their reputation by not letting fingers of other hands to swallow. Citizens have ceased to see a distinction between parliamentarians of ruling parties and members of vested interests groups!

The results of the Class 12 examination have been made public by the National Examination Board (NEB). This year, 61.17 percent of students have been graded. There has been a 9 percent improvement in the results this year compared to last year. Last year, 52 percent of students were graded. The grade promotion exam for Class 12 will be conducted on 13 and 14 September, quoted the news.

The NEB has issued a notice to request to see the answer sheet if you are not satisfied with the re-evaluation of SEE 2025. There was report that the results of 860 of those who re-totaled the SEE number, which were released on 27 June, have had their results changed. Unsatisfied with the number of SEE result, 27,000 examinees had applied for re-totaling. Three percent of the results of the re-totaling applicant have changed.

Similarly, 142,000 people have filled out forms to participate in the SEE grade increase exam conducted on July 29. In the results published on 27 June, 167,000 students were failed or non-graded.

CPN-Maoist Center Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the party is preparing to decide that the children of all Maoist leaders must study in public schools in Nepal, published the news. In an educational dialogue organized by Moist Center affiliated student organisation, Mr. Dahal, who is also a former Prime Minister, stated that the quality of public schools has not improved due to the inability to control private schools.

This statement by the former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, is felt like crocodile’s tears. In Nepal, the most policy decisions and practical moves in favor of private schools appear to have occurred when Prachanda was the Prime Minister and when someone from the Maoist Party was the Minister of Education. Create an environment for cartelization of existing for-profit private schools by banning the opening of new for-profit private schools or the effective involvement of the Maoists to protect private interests has been seen in the SEB currently under discussion. Prachanda was the Prime Minister when the SEB was introduced in the Parliament. Instead, it is often heard that the Maoists are pretending to oppose private schools to ensuring donations collected from them.

It is not difficult to say that his statement is populist because the Maoist leaders’ sons and daughters must have finished the school level already. This statement, made to appease the student organizations, is unlikely to become decision by the Maoists in the first place. Secondly, even if the decision would be made, probability is very low to apply the restriction. This is not the move to do it.

In reality, the reason why the Education Bill took so long is that the Maoists, while the MoEST was in charge, presented a raw Bill without presenting a Bill with their own stance on the real problems. Immediately after pressure from private school investors, the provision that schools must go to a Guthi (non-profit trust) within five years was amended and sent to the HoR. If it could not be done because of the then Prime Minister, then it should have been made public, or if it was to carry the values of Maoism, the minister should have been able to resign. The public will be able to understand that, on the one hand, they are acting as written, and on the other hand, they are showing loyalty by changing the provisions.

The MoEST is going to establish and operate a fund in partnership with the federal, provincial and local Governments to implement compulsory and free education up to secondary level (Class 12), the news quoted.

Some private schools are reluctant to teach students who have passed the examination conducted by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) to study on scholarships in grades 11 and 12. When students pass the scholarship exam and go to the school of their choice to get admission, the school administrators demand fees under various headings, causing mental stress to the students, mentioned the news. The KMC has been monitoring such schools and has even initiated action against them.

Students will be able to correct their old birth certificates to show that they have completed 14 years of age at the time of appearing in the SEE, Gorakhapatra daily published.

Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML has divided the posts of Vice Chancellor of difeerent Academy of Health Sciences between them. Patan and Pokhara Health Sciences Institutes to the UML and BP and Karnali Health Sciences Institute to the NC. Prof. Dr. Buddhi Poudel of Patan, Dr. Bharat Khatri of Pokhara, Prof. Dr. Bikram Prasad Shrestha has been appointed as the Vice Chancellor of BP Institute of Health Sciences Dharan, and Dr. Pujan Kumar Rokaya of Karnali, mentioned the news.

An editorial in Kantipur stated that political appointments in partisanship are being widely criticized and are tarnishing the image of individuals and organizations concerned. The editorial concludes that the failure to establish a universal method for appointments is bringing the system into disrepute. The Editorial suggest that it is necessary for the civil society, from groups within the party seeking reform to make their voices louder, to rein in the whims of party leaders. 

Tribhuwan University (TU) Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. Deepak Aryal, Rector Prof. Dr. Khadga KC and Registrar Prof. Dr. Kedar Prasad Rijal have not been able to enter their offices for two and a half months due to a sit-in protest by a student organization close to the CPN (Maoist-Center). The student organization has been stating that it has been staging this protest in protest of Executive Council's decision to appoint associate professors through 'fast track', the fees being charged by various departments under the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences from students. The protesting students broke the glass of the registrar's office while shouting slogans, the news mentioned.

Stating that it has not been safe due to vandalism and threats, TU has also requested Home Minister and Education Ministers to make security arrangements, the news quoted.
Kantipur reported that now on the University Grants Commission will provide the Equivalence Certificate to students who have studied higher education abroad. Equivalence has so far been distributed by the Curriculum Development Center under the Rector's Office of TU.

Report published that professors who have been living abroad and burdening TU financially by misusing their study leave have now started paying the money back. According to a news published on Onlinekhabar, quoting the TU Personnel Administration Division, more than US$ 119 thousand have been collected from 5 people.

Kantipur Editorial stated that the main objective of TU will not be fulfilled if professors on leave at TU return their money. The editorial suggests that improvements are needed, such as making the criteria clearer, by considering TU's current initiative to adopt transparency in granting study leave facilities as a start to controlling the trend.

The 21st meeting of the Medical Education Commission has decided to increase the ceiling for MBBS from 100 seats to 130 and for BDS from 50 seats to 60. Although the quota for student admissions has been increased in private colleges, it has not been increased in government colleges. The news came quoting experts as saying that the Prime Minister himself has taken the initiative to support to make more profit of private medical colleges. The decision has been made to increase the number of seats in MBBS on the condition that resident doctors will be given a government-like allowance. The fee per student is set at US$ 30 thousand within Kathmandu and US$ 32 thousand outside Kathmandu. Now, if private medical colleges increase the number of MBBS seats by 30, they will raise more than US$ 902 thousand calculated at US$ 30 thousand per student.

Prof. Dr. Govinda KC, who has been protesting against the poor state of health education, has warned that he will be forced to stage a protest including a SATYAGRAHA (Gandhian non-violence protest) if the number of seats is increased, demanding that the fees and number of seats in medical education not be increased, the news published.

Former Vice President of CTEVT, Khagendra Adhikari, wrote an article stating that the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) is in the verge of dissolution due to internal and external problems and challenges. His article mentions that technical education in Nepal is in crisis as Technical Education Programs run in secondary schools under the Center for Education and Human Resource Development are about to collapse.

Out of 272 schools in all seven municipalities of Parbat, 31 public schools, including one secondary school, are without students. Even though the number of students has been zero for a long time, the merging process has not begun yet, the news mentioned. Similarly, in public schools in Parbat, the same person is being reappointed as head teacher without competition, violating the Education Act.

Even though the 10 local levels of Baitadi are spending more than US$ 28.6 million annually on education, the number of students and the quality of education are continuously declining. According to the news, there are 65,000 students studying in 723 educational institutions in the district, including 133 secondary, 429 basic schools, 417 child development centers, and 14 campuses. Barely 5,000 students reach to grade 10, and only half of them pass, quoted the news.

Sushil Khanal has written an article in Gorkhapatra stating that the improvement in SEE and 12th results has increased the confidence of students and parents in the education system of Nepal.

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 pedagogy including the environment. It is aimed to the policy makers and stakeholders to help make informed decisions. In this joint effort of the Center for Educational Policies and Practices (CEPP) and EduKhabar, material from daily newspapers - Kantipur, Gorkhapatra and The Himalayan Times, online news portals - Online Khabar, Setopati and Ratopati and the 8 o'clock news of Nepal Television and 7 o'clock news of Himalaya Television is summarized and presented with commentary on relevant issues. We have covered the contents from 2-15 Aug 2025 in this issue - The Editor.

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