Kathmandu, August 9
A parliamentary sub-committee has blamed the Education Minister for not stopping medical colleges from increasing MBBS and BDS fees.
The sub-committee, which fell short of naming the minister, was formed by Parliament’s Health and Education Committee on March 31 after it received complaints that medical colleges hiked their fees by violating government directives.
It submitted its report on Friday stating that the Education Ministry did not make an effort to heed the cabinet’s advice.
The cabinet in October last year had decided that medical colleges outside the valley could only take Rs 4.04 million as fees while colleges inside the valley could only take Rs 3.8 million. However, medical colleges have been charging students a much higher fee than that.
Coordinator of the sub-committee Suresh Kumar Rai said that medical colleges increased fees because then Education Minister and his secretaries did not show interest. “The ministry did not do anything to stop medical colleges from raising the fees. It’s seen that they rather encouraged the colleges to increase the fees.”
Kathmandu University’s had published a circular which enabled medical colleges to charge its students up to Rs 4.7 million. “The education minister did not say a word even though he knew about this,” added Rai.
