The Department of Education (DoE) has issued a directive to Regional Education Directorates and District Education Offices (DEOs) to change foreign names of private schools within six months. The fiat comes on the heels of a DoE decision to that effect.

Issuing the directive, the DoE has asked its subordinate offices to replace the names as per the clause 154 of Education Regulations 2002 within six months since the directive to regulate and monitor private academic schools has already been endorsed. The government on February 19 endorsed the directive. The new provision has it that the names of private schools should be after the national heroes, intellectuals, scientists, historical icons or places.
“All the DEO’s and directors should ensure that the foreign and English names are changed in six months,” read the directive issued on Wednesday. The DoE move follows series of protest programmes by student unions against higher secondary schools with foreign names with some of them even attacked for having English names.

The student unions close to the ruling and the opposition parties attacked and brunt hoarding boards of various schools a few months ago. The process to change the foreign names will not cost the schools as the respective DEOs and Company Registrar’s Offices will waive all the charges needed for the legal process. Though the DoE does not have the exact data about the number of schools with foreign names, its estimation shows there are around 250 in the Kathmandu Valley alone.

The schools, using the word ‘international’ in their names, should also remove it if they don’t have foreign students or have not acquired an ISO certification. According to the new directives, schools with such a word in their names name must acquire ISO certification or at least one percent students should be foreign.

source: The Kathmandu post,9 March 2013