Teachers call off strike Will re-agitate if demands not met

ISHWAR RAUNIYAR KATHMANDU, JULY 30 After the government committed to address their demands, Nepal Education Republic Forum (NERF) on Thursday agreed to call off their strike. Following the NERF decision, schools will temporarily reopen from Friday. NERF, the umbrella organisation of 10 different agitating organisations had called a three-day strike from Wednesday. “The government has promised to address our demands, therefore we have called off the strike for now,” said Hom Bahadur Thapa, Vice-Chairman of NERF. “We will hold discussions with the government from tomorrow regarding our demands.” According to Thapa, the Forum will re-launch the agitation if the government fails to meet their demands. The Ministry of Education (MoE), had dealt with the teachers’ bodies earlier and on March 29, 2007, had inked a 14-point agreement with NERF. Similarly, on April 2, 2007 and again on June 15 the same year, the ministry had signed an 8-point agreement with Nepal Institutional School Teachers’ Union (NISTU). However, under secretary at the ministry Lekhnath Poudel said only a huge investment in the education sector followed by political consensus would pave the way for long-term solutions. According to Poudel, demands like making temporary teachers permanent and providing salary to the teachers of private schools equal to those of public schools could not be implemented immediately. Poudel said the agitating teachers should be more flexible regarding their demands. “According to government estimates, it will cost the ministry about Rs. 6 billion, which is far beyond what the ministry can afford.” He added, “Policy should be brought forth to provide salary to private school teachers equal to that of teachers at public schools.” What the government can do is fix a minimum salary for teachers, Paudel said. Lab Prasad Tripathi, former MoE spokesman said, “Political instability has caused this problem. Frequent change of government has become a major problem. New governments don’t want to implement the agreements reached with previous governments, and, this results in such turbulent situations in the education sector. “Political leaders must sit together to find a long-term solution to this problem.” Tripathi was also of the opinion that the government should immediately implement past agreements and rule out other illogical demands that could not met. The government has formed a three-member talks committee comprising Education Minister Ram Chandra Kushwaha, Peace and Reconstruction Minister Rakam Chemjong and Minister for Federal Affairs Minendra Rijal. NERF has since long been demanding permanent status for temporary teachers in public schools, appointment letters for all the staff working in schools from peons to watchmen, salaries for private school teachers equal to that of public school teachers, reinstatement of sacked teachers and formation of management committees in schools.