Speaking at a function organized by the Department of Education (DoE) on Thursday, Ranju Jha, chairperson of the Women, Children and Social Welfare Committee at parliament, said that the committee has been pressing the Ministry of Education to draft an amendment to the Education Act 1971 to make it more favorable to women."The lawmakers will cooperate with the bureaucrats as far as possible to strengthen women's presence in teaching," said CA Member Jha, who was nominated to the post by the CPN-UML under PR quota.
The commitment from the parliamentary committee has come for the first time even though the election manifestos of most political parties mentioned increasing the number of female teachers in schools.
The parties claimed in their manifestos for the first and second CA elections that they would increase female presence in teaching to 33 percent. However, only 27 percent of teachers in community schools are female, according to a government flash report. Most of them are confined to primary school level and only a very nominal number of female teachers are to be found at lower secondary and secondary levels.
Ganesh Man Gurung, chairman of parliament's Education Sub-committee, said that a series of debates and hearings would be held in this regard so that the draft amendment to the Education Act does not get stuck in the House.
As per an existing provision in the Education Act, one teaching position is to be reserved for a female teacher if a primary school has positions for five teachers. Similarly, female teachers can claim two positions if a school has more than six teachers and three in case it has more than 11 teaching positions. Lower secondary and secondary schools do not have any such arrangement. However, the Teachers Service Commission recently announced 3,200 teaching position vacancies with 33 percent reserved for lady teachers.
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