Department of Education (DoE) today decided to begin the process of amending the recently issued Institutional Schools Criteria and Operation Directives-2013 after private school associations refused to implement it.

Private and Boarding Schools Association of Nepal (PABSON) today presented an 11-point charter to Department of Education officials at a meeting today, for amendment in the directives, endorsed by the government to regulate private schools on February 17.

Meanwhile, defying the directives, private schools have been charging exorbitant fee for entrance form and entrance test and under many other headings.

Babu Ram Pokharel, president, PABSON today said they have asked the government to amend certain points, which were difficult to implement immediately.

He said, “The Department of Education today decided to amend the directives to address the issues raised by us.”

The government had earlier formed a taskforce with representatives from PABSON, NPABSON, Guardian Association of Nepal, among others. The taskforce had drafted the directives. But when PABSON was pressurised by medium and small schools, it said the government had cheated them while drafting the directives and they were not in a position to implement them.

Following PABSON’s refusal to comply with the directives, GAN also began their protest programme to put pressure to implement them. GAN had been staging various protests from the day PABSON refused to implement them.

A week ago, during the Lalitpur district assembly of PABSON, school principals had decided to burn the directives.

Pokharel said they have urged the government to amend certain criteria such as optimum number of students in a classroom, school merger, shifting of schools running in rented houses, representation of PABSON in District Education Committee, improvement in physical infrastructure and others.

“In the 11th point, we asked the government to make changes in language of the directives,” he said. Tek Narayan Panday, director, DoE, said when the implementing agencies had difficulties, they were forced to amend the directives. He said, “They thought of making the directives more practical by addressing the issues of schools even though the directives had reached the implementation stage.” He further said the taskforce would incorporate the issues of guardians and students while amending the directives this time.

source: The Himalayan Times,3 April 2013