Kathmandu - This week news varied from Medical education fee decision and disagreement to teacher’s exam policy and additional innovative approaches in local governments. News about physical punishment made it in the news again. CIAA had warned about arbitrary appointment and transfer of teachers. There were two articles that discussed about the validity of exams results. One story in children section discussed about the morality and exams. Healthy school lunch practices in Japan made it in the media again.

 

Medical education commission has raised the fees without consultation by up to 4.7%. News about local government regulating schools with sincerity and efforts to make teachers more accountable and school merger plans was reported this week. Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration has blocked local governments from appointing teachers. Criteria were set for colleges running under affiliation with international institutions. Articles about municipality run child care centers in each ward that ensured better care than private institution at minimal cost in Bhaktapur and Lalitpur was also reported in media. Parents were reported demanding to extend such centers to primary level schools as well.

 

Abbreviations: MoEST- Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, TU- Tribhuwan University, IOM- Institute of Medicine, TUSC-TU Service Commission, KD-Kantipur Daily, THT-  The Himalayan Times, PM- Prime Minister, UNICEF- United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund

- The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has directed the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to ensure that appointment and transfer procedures of community school teachers fully complied with the Education Rules2002. As per the rules, no teachers shall be appointed or transferred to the school where there is no vacant post. If any candidate applied for permanent appointment to any vacant post approved by the government, the concerned school management committee may appoint the person to replace a temporary teacher at the school. The temporary teacher is given maximum six months’ time to quit the job. “If any person is appointed as a teacher or if a teacher is transferred in defiance of the rules, the amount expended as salary, allowance on such teacher shall be recovered from the authority involved in the appointment or transfer,” stated the rules.

 

The anti-graft body has warned against such unauthorized activities taking place at various community schools after a school inspector in Education Section of Parsa-based Jagarnathpur Rural Municipality, was found to have been involved in corruption by issuing fake appointment letters to various individuals as teachers, recently. According to the CIAA, Chaurasiya also assigned individuals to work at different schools as salaried teachers on the basis of fake appointment letters, without fulfilling the criteria set forth in the rules. Meanwhile, the MoFAGA has issued a circular today, accompanied by the directive of the CIAA, to all local levels to act as per the rules while appointing and transferring community school teachers.

 

- Medical Education Commission has revised upward fee structure for fiscal 2019-20 by 4.4 per cent to 4.7 per cent. These revisions were made by MEC’s meetings. The meetings referred to the central bank’s inflation data of the last fiscal to make the revisions, according to a statement issued today. A third of fees should be paid in the first year and the remaining in annual installments. Any university or college that collects more fee than stipulated by the MEC will face legal consequences, MEC had notified. The National Medical Education Act allows the MEC to set medical education fees, grant or revoke affiliation of medical colleges across the country and regulate the medical education sector.  The MEC sets fees based on parameters such as investment made by colleges and universities, overhead cost of colleges and universities, inflation, geographic location, quality of education, condition of hospitals, free medical services provided by colleges and universities and scholarships offered by colleges and universities.

 

The Association of Private Medical and Dental Colleges has warned that colleges will not admit new students this year even though the Medical Education Commission had increased fees for medical studies. The association was reported stating rise in tuition fees for MBBS and BDS programs by the Medical Education Commission was not accept able as the revised fee structure was one-sided and was announced without any discussions with owners of private medical colleges. It had demanded that medical colleges be given 150 seats for MBBS and 75 seats for BDS programs, respectively. Issuing a press release Govinda KC, senior orthopaedic surgeon, who recently retired from Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) after serving for 26 years was reported to have serious objections to the Medical Education Commission, for increasing fees for MBBS and BDS programs. He stated the fees should not be increased without empirical studies. Mentioning the commission should take decisions giving priority to students and guardians, rather than considering the benefits of medical college owners. Nepal Medical Council has allocated seats for Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery and Bachelor of Dental Surgery to medical colleges for the academic year 2019-2020. The council has allocated a maximum of 100 seats to MBBS and 50 seats for BDS for the medical colleges.

Figure 1: Children in municipality run child care center in Bhaktapur. Such centers based per ward in Bhaktpaur and Lalitpur are becoming popular among parents for its safety and equibed services in affortable cost. KD_Oct 19_2019

 

- In reference to University grant commission's suggestion to cancel the permits of colleges with international affiliation and running in low standards, the MoEST has created criteria to shut such institutions. There are 95 institutions working in affiliation of foreign institutions, of which the survey team had identified 9 institutions that offer A level courses but are below acceptable standard. These institutions were purposed to be shutdown.

 

- School lunches are key to Japan’s high nutrition scores stated an opinion article. It stated that alandmark report by the UN’s children agency UNICEF released on shows Japan topping the charts for childhood health indicators, with low rates of infant mortality and few underweight children. But it also manages the lowest incidence of childhood obesity among the 41 developed countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and European Union.

 

'Education this Week' is a joint effort put to analyze the press coverage of education in Nepal’s selected print media published in Kathmandu. The main aim of this effort is to identify and explain major education issues picked up by the media and give back and foreground of the news.This, we believe, will help policy makers and other responsible people to keep abreast with ongoing concerns and discussions on and around education. EduKhabar, in collaboration with the Center for Educational Policies and Practices (CEPP) , has produced this analysis based on the news printed in Kantipur (Nepali) and The Himalayan Times (English), Dailies andHimal Weekly(Nepali) betweenOct 16-22, 2019 (Asoj 29-Kartik 5, 2076)- Editor.

 

Read this analysis in Nepali : विवादमा शिक्षक सरुवाको निर्णय

 

Read last week’s analysis : Government prepare to adjust extra medical tuition fee, while Dr.KC warns of hunger strike

All analysis read by this link : Education This week