Kathmandu: Education Minister Dinanath Sharma has been keeping the reports on fee structures of medical and nursing colleges under wraps. The minister has shown little interest in implementing the reports, which recommend slashing fees for four-year MBBS and three-year intermediate-level nursing programmes by about a million and Rs 2 lakh, reportedly under pressure from private medical and nursing colleges, though he often says that homework is underway to act on the reports.

If the government implements the report, the fees for the MBBS and nursing courses will come down to around Rs 3.2 million and Rs 3.96 lakh. The non-implementation of the report has angered the CPN-UML-aligned student union ANNFSU and UCPN-Maoist student union ANNISU-R.

The ANNFSU has padlocked the vice-chairman and administration of the Bhaktapur-based Council for the Technical Education and Vocational Training for one-and-a-half months to press for the reports’ implementation.

The ANNISU-R has taken to the streets to press the government to publicise the documents.

On his part, Minister Sharma is speaking with a forked tongue — pledging to implement the reports and hesitating to make them public at the same time.

ANNFSU President Madhav Dhungel said CTEVT, which has education minister as its chairman, has failed to keep its pledge of monitoring the implementation of the fee structures that the reports have suggested.

source: The Himalayan Times,7 Jan 2011