Kathmandu: The Laboratory School Management Committee has agreed to hand over the institution to the Tribhuvan University (TU), ending a sustained controversy over ownership of the property.

“In a meeting with university officials, we have agreed that the TU vice chancellor will be the patron of the school,” said Bal Gopal Vaidya of the committee. He is of the opinion that the TU should run the school as it is being done at present. The management committee has clarified that the school is a public property, not possessed by any individual.

Being managed by the Little Angels (LA) School at present, Laboratory School was established in 1956 under the College of Education. The facility was set up with a view to providing practice lessons for students under the education faculty. But it became a victim of power play, falling on private hands eventually, according to TU officials.

According to Prakash Shrestha, dean of the TU education faculty, the TU had decided to temporarily relinquish the management of the school to Nepal Education Society in 1995 after the quality of the school deteriorated. Umesh Shrestha was the member secretary of the society led by former Education Secretary Vaidya. Shrestha, with political backing, took over the school in 2003 and merged it with LA, TU officials say.

Shrestha, founder principal of LA School, said he only wanted to protect the public property. “I have invested Rs 4 million in the school’s infrastructure.”

source: The Kathmandu Post