All Nepal Teachers’ Organisation (ANTO) has demanded nationalisation of private and boarding schools by giving adequate compensation to their operators.This would end dual policies in the education sector. The organisation has also demanded scrapping of the provision of registering educational institutions under the Company Act and that all plus-two colleges be nationalised.
ANTO last Thursday submitted 14-point professional and 10-point educational demands to Education Minister Professor Dr Mangal Siddhi Manandhar and also gave him an ultimatum to meet the demands by the second week of August.
Addressing a press conference here, ANTO president, Gunaraj Lohani, said the minister had assured them of fulfilling some of their demands.
Lohani, however, quoted the minister as saying that the ministry needed to consult with the seven-party alliance before meeting their demands.
Lohani said his organisation has asked the government to make public whereabouts of three teachers - Chitra Narayan Shrestha, Binod Choudhary and Ganesh Bahadur Shahi - who were disappeared by the state and also sought release of all others who are still in jail. He said about a dozen teachers were put behind the bars on false charges.
It has also demanded reinstatement of those teachers who were dismissed from their jobs because of their political ideology and give permanent appointment to others who had served for a long time.
Lohani said that the government should scrap teaching license system and ensure that all the private and boarding schools provide equal salary and facilities to their teachers on par with the government standard.
When asked whether it was possible to nationalise all the private and boarding schools, Lohani said that it was possible if the government had will power and offered them adequate compensation.
Anomalies in the educational sector would not be resolved as long as dual education policies and the private and boarding schools continued to exist, he said.