The Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB) has decided not to register students from the higher secondary schools (HSS) which deny full scholarships to the students recommended by it.

Issuing a public notice on Saturday, the board directed all its sub-ordinate offices across the country to reject the registration of all the students from such defiant HSS. The students will be barred from taking their final exams if their registration is denied.

The decision was taken after numbers of Plus Two institutes, mainly from the Valley, were found to have charged thousands of rupees in advance to the students who were selected for scholarships on merit. Some of the HSS even denied admission to such students. Under the Education Regulation 2002, all the schools are required to provide 10 percent full scholarship out of their total enrollment. The HSEB, however, has been asking the HSS to provide just five percent--three percent selected through the open competition and two percent picked by the HSS themselves.

“We had to take a stern measure after numbers of complaints were filed against the higher secondary schools,” said Bhim Lal Gurung, member-secretary HSEB, at an interaction in the Capital on Saturday. The board has received complaints against numbers of HSS, including NIST, Pentagon, Mega, Kathmandu Modal and St Xavier’s for charging such students between Rs 12,000 and Rs 30,000. Similarly, the Nepal Army and Nepal Police schools have even denied admission to such students. The HSEB has selected around 2,200 students for scholarship on merit basis, prioritising those who belong to the marginalised, indigenous and dalit communities.  

The students unions also have started a protest against such Plus Two institutes, asking for an immediate refund. The UCPN (Maoist) affiliated All Nepal National Independent Student Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) has announced to padlock the account section of all such colleges on Sunday after they refused to refund the money. The ANNISU-R on July 27 had issued a three-day ultimatum to correct their activities.

ANNISU-R Chairman Himal Sharma said, “We will not end the protest before taking it to a conclusion.” The private HSS had agreed not to charge such students in a tripartite agreement reached between the representatives of the Higher Secondary Schools Association Nepal, the HSEB and the various students unions in July last year.

source:the kathmandu post,3 august 2014