Stakeholders of education said the budget announcement has portrayed private schools stronger and better than public schools in providing quality education, which they said was not a reality.

The stakeholders condemned the provision mentioned in the budget announcement that all secondary level private schools have to take responsibility of at least one public school for improving their academic conditions.

Stakeholders condemned the provision by claiming that the provision had tried to show the private schools were superior and better than public schools.

Gagan Thapa, member of Parliamentary Education and Health Committee and Nepali Congress leader,said the announcement seemed so funny at a time when many private schools across the country were going to close due to economic crisis created by COVID-19 impact. He said many public schools had better infrastructure and
were better in providing quality education than the private schools.

Dr. Bidhya Nath Koirala, educationist, said the announcement reflected that the private schools were superior than public schools though many community schools were imparting quality education and they were really role model for community. “In this context, the exchange of best practices between public and private schools could be good rather than imposing things only from private schools.”

He further said public schools have more trained teachers than private schools and private schools seemed more systematic.Surendra Basnet, leader of All Nepal National Independent Students Union (ANNFSU), said the government had brought the programme with a plan to promote private schools, which was against the Constitution. “The government programme is wrong because the Constitution clearly said the education up to secondary level is the responsibility of the state,” he said.

Rup Narayan Shrestha, chairperson of the Socialist Student's Union, said the government wanted to escape its responsibility to provide education to people and the plan was formulated at the behest of the private school owners.

Even the private schools' organisation, National Private and Boarding School Association Nepal (NPABSON), had opposed the provision. NPABSON said the budget announcement had saddened the private schools. Issuing a press statement on Friday, NPABSON said the government tried to add burden to private schools in the present crisis. NPABSON said the private schools were expecting some relief from the government to tackle the impact caused by COVID-19 crisis.

They expressed their unhappiness for not addressing the problems of private schools while the government had provisioned relief package for other private sector businesses. Likewise, Private and Boarding School Association Nepal (PABSON) said the private schools could not look after public schools at a time when they were themselves facing the survival crisis.

Tika Puri, chairperson of the PABSON, said though the private schools were providing quality education by offering scholarships for the needy students, the state could not recognise their contribution.  

source: risingnepaldaily, 30 may 2020

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