A monitoring committee, formed under the coordination of director of Department of Education, has started monitoring Valley schools from May 23.

According to Suprabhat Bhandari, a monitoring committee member and president of National Guardians’ Association Nepal, said Rajarshi Gurukul in Bhaktapur was monitored on Friday and Euro Kids in Kathmandu was monitored today.

The monitoring team visited the schools and inquired about their fee structure, students’ enrollment record, facilities for students, and teachers’ salary, among others.

“We are collecting information on the fee structure and data on scholarship provided to students, implementation of institutional school directives, and changing of foreign names, among others. We will tally the data with the government directives and the Supreme Court’s verdict at the end of the monitoring,” he said.

If the schools are found to be violating the rules, the committee will recommend the academic institution for action.

The committee was formed a few weeks ago after the CPN-Maoist aligned All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) padlocked the account section of institutional schools for hiking the monthly fee by 25 per cent.

According to the student union, the hike in schools fees was against the government and Supreme Court’s directives not to raise tuition fee for a few years.

Last week, the students and representatives from PABSON, NPABSAN, GAN and National Guardians’ Association Nepal and officials from Department of Education had agreed to withdraw the monthly fee hike, speed up monitoring of private schools, ensure representation of ANNISU-R in the monitoring body, hold discussion with teachers and other staff regarding their problems and salaries, among others.

The monitoring of schools is expected to be completed by mid-June.

source: the himalayan times, 25 may 2014