Student unions aligned to various political parties, including the ruling ones, today decided to obstruct admission in the institutional schools to protest a recent decision to hike tuition fees.

At a meeting held at the office of All Nepal National Independent Students Union-Revolutionary, aligned to the Unified CPN-Maoist, nine student unions affiliated to various political parties decided to obstruction admission in institutional schools from tomorrow.

Institutional schools in different districts recently decided to hike tuition fees by 10-40 per cent.

The student unions said they would also submit a memorandum to the government through the Department of Education tomorrow.They have also decided to stage sit-in protests in front of district education offices across the country on April 17 and hold an interaction with the stakeholders on April 18 regarding fee hike, scholarship and other educational issues.

Ramesh Malla, coordinator, ANNISU-R, said if institutional schools and the government failed to withdraw the fee hike decision, they would stage educational strike in the next phase of protest.

“We will be forced to shut all academic institutions across the country for an indefinite period from April 19, if the fee hike decision is not withdrawn,” he said.

Representatives from nine student unions, including Nepali Congress aligned Nepal Students Union, CPN-UML aligned All Nepal National Free Students Union, CPN-Maoist aligned ANNISU-R and CPN Maoist aligned ANNISU-R among others were present at today’s meeting.

source:the himalayan times,15 April 2015