Right before the Great Earthquake PABSON and N-PABSON, the two main umbrella bodies for private schools in the country, were together locked in a bitter dispute with the government. The major point of contention, as always, concerned school fees. The two bodies had back in March proposed to double the monthly fees that could be charged by private schools. The Department of Education (DoE) wasn't so keen; in fact, its hands were tied. Back in 2012 the Supreme Court had ruled that private schools could increase their fees no more than once every three years. But it was unreasonable, private schools argued, to expect them to continue with the same fee structure for three years running in face of a double-digit inflation. In the event, school fees were increased by between 11 and 41 percent, the fees differing from district to district. Student unions immediately cried foul. When the Great Earthquake hit, government representatives, student unions, guardian councils and, of course, private school representatives were locked in a battle royale to determine the right fee structure. Then, the unthinkable happened, and all schools were closed for a month, and the issue of fee increase put on the backburner.But private schools had already devised all kinds of dubious ways to circumvent the Supreme Court verdict, long before the Great Earthquake. The unprecedented tragedy only seems to have whetted their appetite for parental money. There is perhaps not a single school, public or private, in the 14 worst-affected districts that has not in some way been affected by recent tremors; 600 school buildings were completely destroyed. But should parents be made to pay from their pockets for reconstruction of these damaged infrastructures? We don't see a problem with asking parents and guardians who can afford to do so to pitch in. But any such request should be voluntary. The schools, at the least, should properly inform parents why they are being asked for help. But DoE, in its most recent inspection visit of affected schools, has found that many of them are collecting reconstruction funds under misleading headings like 'school development' —and without properly informing the parents how their money will be spent. This is cheating.
The reason the operators of these schools and other private bodies of higher education have been allowed to get away with such blatant swindle of parents and guardians has a lot to do with their political affiliations. Most operators of big private schools and colleges in Nepal are affiliated to either of the two establishment parties, Nepali Congress or CPN-UML, especially the latter. As a result, whenever there is any serious effort to regulate these schools, there is a hard pushback. There is no mechanism whatsoever to ensure that there is no conflict of interest between the group that drafts and implements our education policies and the group these policies target. In fact, the two groups often comprise the same set of people. There will be no meaningful reform so long as private school operators enjoy such strong political protection and so long as our ministers and bureaucrats are allowed to run the 'business' of education on the side.
Related story
High-profile corruption cases pending at Supreme Court for two...
-1200x560-1779450784.webp)
