Zone Of Peace

PRIME Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has called upon the teachers to have faith in democratic practice and sit for dialogue to resolve the problems in the academic sector. Receiving a memorandum from the agitating teachers of private and boarding schools in Kathmandu Thursday, Prime Minister Koirala said that problems can be solved through dialogue in a democracy and called upon the teachers and others to follow democratic and civic practices. The remarks and request of the Prime Minster carry special significance at a time when the private and boarding schools have been closed due to the agitation of the teachers. The teachers in the private and boarding schools have launched the agitation demanding salary and other facilities at par with the teachers in the government schools. In response to the demand of the teachers and staff, owners of the private boarding schools had also threatened to shut down the schools as some of the private schools were not able to meet all the demands put forth by the teachers and other staff. As the owners and the teachers locked horn on some issues, the schools were closed from Thursday, which has made the future of the hundreds of thousands students uncertain. The owners and management also need to give serious attention to the just demands of the teachers in private schools.

However, teachers also need to demonstrate civic sense and behavour. Activities like pressure tactics, protests and school closure do not suit teachers. Moreover, no one has the right to play with the future of students. Teachers should be more responsible and sensitive towards the future of students. So they need to return to work and simultaneously initiate dialogue for resolving their problems. This is the right approach. Similarly, the government also needs to intervene and solve the problem as early as possible. Although the private sector has played a very important role in the development of education in Nepal, there are complaints about the exploitation of teachers in some schools. The government has failed to properly monitor the private schools and make sure that schools provided reasonable salary and facilities to the teachers and other staff. Most of the private schools charge exorbitant fees to students but provide little facilities to the teachers and students. So the government needs to intervene here. It is urgent that all the sectors, as observed by Prime Minister Koirala, demonstrated a civic culture and behavour in order to solve the problems in the academic sector and ensure peace in the schools.

Source: The Rising Nepal, May 19, 2007