The 13-member monitoring committee formed by the Higher Secondary Education Board today began monitoring Plus Two colleges in Kathmandu.

The committee today visited Tinkune-based Kathmandu Barsha College to find out whether the college has been abiding by the code of conduct. The college has been running under Kathmandu Barcelona Education Network along the Araniko Highway. Earlier, it was running as Merryland School at some 200 metres south of the highway. The shareholders recently split into two groups and have been running both the institutions separately.

The monitoring committee also gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the school administration to give a written clarification regarding the relocation of the college without informing the concerned authorities.

According to the Higher Secondary Education Board, it had asked KBC to furnish clarification regarding relocation of the college from one place to another but the college did not abide by its directives.

Suprabhat Bhandari, president of Guardians Association Nepal and a member of monitoring committee, said since the college had failed to abide by the directives issued by the Higher Secondary Education Board and had been operating without following the rules and regulations, it has been asked to furnish clarification within 24-hours.

“The classrooms were found to be very congested and poorly ventilated,” he said, adding, “There was not enough light in the classrooms.” He further said that the infrastructure of the classrooms also had not changed much since last year.

According to Bhandari, during last year’s monitoring, KBC was found to be one of the two colleges which were spending around Rs 10 million in a year in advertisements only. No changes in the classroom structure means that the college was spending the students’ fees and other charges collected in the name of infrastructure development only in advertisements, he said. The committee is going to monitor other Plus Two colleges as well in the coming days. Likewise, they will also visit Plus Two colleges in other districts and check out the status of implementation of code of conduct.

The code of conduct specifies rules regarding students’ dress code, advertisement ceiling, prohibition of photos of celebrities and students in the hoarding boards and brochures and other publicity materials and others.

source: the himalayan times, 25 June 2013