At a program held by the Educational Journalists´ Group (EJG), Khadka put forward mainly two solid reasons to back what he said to assuage parents´ fear about fees-hike for the next academic year: not-so-high inflation rate and no increment in teachers´ salaries in public schools. [break]
Khadka said the inflation rate is not expected to be high as last year. "And, the government has not increased salary scales of teachers working in public schools.
Therefore, even if any private school proposes to increase its fees, it will not be as high as it was last year. Usually, private schools tend to hike fees only to adjust inflation and increase their teachers´ salaries on par with public schools´ teachers,” he added.
Last year, in the wake of private schools´ decision to hike fees by an average of 25 per cent, the All Nepal National Independent Students´ Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) had launched an agitation, shutting down around 8,000 private schools across the country and driving over 1.5 million students off regular classes for almost one week.
Private schools are required to propose fees-hike, if needed, at district-level committees formed by different District Education Offices (DEOs) by February 12, two months before the beginning of a new academic session. No school has submitted its proposal for this time.
Geeta Rana, President of National Private and Boarding Schools´ Organization of Nepal (N-PABSON), who also attended the program, said they are in favor of controlling mushrooming of private schools.
Rana´s remarks came in the face of a recent fiat issued by the All Nepal Teachers Union-Revolutionary (ANTU-R), which is affiliated to the Maoists, to not let any new private schools open from next session.
“We are, too, of the view that we should stop mushrooming of private schools. However, the blanket ban on registration of new private schools, as demanded by the Maoists, is next to impossible,” she said. “The government should carry out a comprehensive mapping to permit opening of new schools. If there are already adequate numbers of private schools in place, no new private schools should be allowed to open there.”
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