Various student unions have asked the Private and Boarding Schools’ Organisation Nepal (Pabson) to immediately roll back its decision to hike tuition fee s at the school level.

Issuing separate statements on Tuesday, the CPN-UML-aligned All Nepal National Free Students’ Union, the UCPN (Maoist)-affiliated

All Nepal National Indepen-dent Students’ Union-Revolutionary and the CPN-Maoist union have threatened consequences unless Pabson withdraws its decision.

The umbrella organisation of private schools across the country announced to make an 18 percent increment in tuition in the new academic session beginning next month. The 12th general convention of the Pabson decided the hike to balance its increased expenditures in teachers’ salary and other operations.

The student unions say the Pasbon announcement is an open challenge to a Supreme Court verdict. A division bench of Justices Tahir Ali Ansari and Baidya Nath Upadhyay on May 23, 2012 had directed schools to not hike their tuition for three years and asked the Prime Minister’s Office, the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Education to effectively monitor compliance.

“We ask private school operators not to invite a conflict by defying the legal provision,” read an ANNISU-R statement. Around 1.3 million students are currently studying in some 8,000 private schools across the country.

source: the kathmandu post,12 march 2014