May 6: The government has instructed community and private schools across the country not to enroll students and not to charge any fee to the students during the lockdown.The government issued the instruction after the student wings of different political parties opposed the move to begin school enrollment process from May 8.

Issuing a notice, the Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MOEST) on Monday asked schools not to collect fee from students and guardians under any heading during this lockdown. The government also instructed the schools not to take online admission after receiving complaints that some private schools were enrolling students online without taking permission and were even charging fees for the month of April.

Asked about the instruction of the government, Tika Puri, chairman, Private and Boarding School Association of Nepal (PABSON), said the private schools were not talking about enrollment and charging fees understanding the difficult period of the country and noted no such instruction was required.Likewise, no private school is asking the guardians to pay fee for online classes or the regular tuition fee, Puri added.

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However, the schools are seeking counsel from the government, he said, to pay salary to their teaching and non-teaching staff, pay rent and meet other management cost since they could not collect fees from the students.

Earlier, government had asked schools across the country to enroll students from May 8 by maintaining social distancing, which was opposed by the student wings of different political parties, including the ruling Nepal Communist Party.

The Ministry for Education Science and Technology (MOEST) had called schools across the country to enroll students through phone call and online from coming Friday. Though the Ministry claimed that the government announced a week for enrollment of school children to end the dilemma regarding their upgraded classes, the student wings argued that the government announcement was not relevant during this period.

Surendra Basnet, leader of All Nepal National Free Students' Union (ANNFSU), blamed that the government had announced the week for admission as per the interest of the private schools.

Rup Narayan Shrestha, chairperson of Socialist Students' Union, had said the government’s was a biased decision influenced by private schools. He had demanded with the Ministry for the withdrawal of the decision.

As per the government decision many public and private schools had started announcing the admission notice for guardians and students.

Juddhyodaya Madhyamik Vidhyalaya, Chhetrapati Monday had issued a notice calling the guardians to admit their children in the school.  

source: risingnepaldaily, 6 may 2020

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