Students to protest against refusal to waive fee,

Students to protest against refusal to waive fee

Eleven student unions today said they will launch protests to press the Ministry of Education, Private and Boarding Schools Organisation Nepal (PABSON) and National Private and Boarding Schools Association of Nepal (NPABSON) to fulfil the demands that they have raised in the interest of students and guardians.

The agitating student unions have demanded that the MoE, PABSON and NPABSON implement the 10-point agreement of April 19, including waiving tuition fee of a month (April 25-May 31) when schools were closed in the aftermath of the earthquake, free schooling with residential facilities for the students who lost their mother or parents in the disaster, waiving fee for the homeless students for this academic session and developing new school calendar.

“The government, PABSON and NPABSON have not shown any seriousness towards implementing the 10-point agreement and our genuine demands that we raised after the disaster,” said a joint statement issued by the student unions.

“The lack of cooperation from the associations of private and boarding schools has not only hurt us but also has humiliated the students.” Nepal Students Union aligned to the Nepali Congress, All Nepal National Free Student’s Union aligned to the CPN-UML and All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union-Revolutionary aligned to the Unified CPN-Maoist are among the student unions that issued the joint statement. “They took our agitation for granted, provoking us to announce phase-wise protest,” it added.

The student unions have said they will meet Prime Minister Sushil Koirala tomorrow to draw his attention to their demands. They have also planned district-level meetings to for joint monitoring teams on Monday.

The agitating students have decided to stop the vehicles carrying MoE officials and owners of private schools on Tuesday, which will be followed by formation of a joint struggle committee, including guardians, in all schools. They have said they will make further preparations for education strike on Wednesday.

source: the himalayan times,14 june 2015