In a bid to check the mushrooming of private and boarding schools in Kathmandu Valley, the district education offices of the three districts of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur have decided not to register any new private school during the next academic session.

Following an increment in students´ enrollment in private institutions, the district education offices have decided to reject registration of new schools in the new academic session, according to the Kathmandu District Education Officer Baikuntha Aryal.

Around two dozen community schools with zero enrolment have been closed within a couple of years in the Valley. The officials feared that the situation could worsen in the next few years if the government does not come up with an aggressive plan to improve the overall quality and structure of community schools if the private schools continue to increase every year.

Currently, there are around 2,500 schools in the Valley. Out of 1,463 schools in Kathmandu, 1,167 are private and boarding schools and 296 are community schools. Similarly, there are 337 schools in Bhaktapur, including 137 community schools. Lalitpur district has 700 schools and about half of them are private schools.

Bhaktapur District Education Officer Dipak Kafle said schools which want to change their names would only be registered if they come with Nepali names.

“We have also sent circular to all the schools with foreign name to revise their names,” Kafle added. The schools named after eminent international personalities such as scientists and scholars would not be changed, he said.

source: republica,20 Jan 2013