Kathmandu, May 25
Student unions have lodged their protest against the KP Oli government for not taking action against private schools that are exploiting parents and students by collecting exorbitant fees from them.
A joint meeting of student unions held on Monday pointed that school monitoring conducted under the leadership of the Ministry of Education had found a number of private schools in the Kathmandu Valley collecting exorbitant fees instead of adhering to governing rules. The government has not taken any action against these schools, the unions said, demanding that the government take action against them without delay.
UP Lamichhane, spokesperson for the Nepal Students’ Union, said the unions will hand over a memorandum to Education Minister Giri Raj Mani Pokharel, giving the government three days to take action against the errant schools.
In course of monitoring, we found some schools based in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur collecting exorbitant fees, he said, demanding action against such schools.
Student unions and the ministry had constituted five committees as per an understanding. The committees had conducted monitoring in schools like Rato Bangala, DAV, GEMS, Siddhartha Vanasthali, Galaxy, Matribhumi and Rajshree Gurukul.
In course of monitoring, we found schools collecting up to Rs 30,000 from each student in Grade I, not sticking to government-set standards and not providing adequate salary and perks to teachers and non-teaching staff. Despite this, the government has not bothered to take action against the schools at fault, according to the unions.
