Faced with continued decline in the enrollment of students at public schools, the government has introduced a policy to merge them.

For their better functioning after merger, the Department of Education (DoE) plans to provide a promotional allowance of Rs 10,000 to each class through the District Education Office (DEO), the directive has stated.

Similarly, the teachers working in the two schools that are merged will work in the school thus formed till the government makes another decision regarding manpower management.
The DoE endorsed the directive making it effective from Sunday and authorizing the DEO to merge two or more schools on the basis of their student´s enrollment, nearness of school from one to another, and the property dispute between two or more schools.

The DEO has been authorized to merge schools if they fail to attract the required number of students. However, the directive has clarified that the poorly equipped schools in geographically difficult places would not be compelled to seek merger.

In mountainous areas, schools with less than 10 students in grade 1 and 20 in grade 12 would be merged. In hills, the schools that have less than 20 students´ in grade 1 and 25 in 12 would be merged with two or more schools. But in the Valley and Tarai areas, schools with less than 30 students in grade 1 and 2, 35 in grade 1 to 5 and 30 in grade 12 would be merged.

"The DEO in the mountain districts can merge schools only with the permission of community stakeholders,” the directive reads.

The directive has been endorsed, based on the Education Act-1971 and the Education Regulation. Though the School Sector Reform Program´s standard ratio for the teacher and student has been set at 1:30, the teacher-student ratio in the Tarai region stands at 1:50, in the hills at 1:45 and mountainous region at 1:40.

source:republica,2 Dec 2013