KATHMANDU, July 16: Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal Thursday instructed the Ministry of Education (MoE) to resolve Proficiency Certificate Level (PCL) phase out row within one week by forming an all-party committee.
As per PM Nepal´s instruction, MoE will form a committee consisting representatives of Tribhuvan University (TU), University Grant Commission (UGC), Ministry of Finance (MoF), Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT), National Planning Commission (NPC) and all 13 student unions that have been on the war path, pressing the government to initiate a process toward strengthening community +2 schools before phasing out PCL.[break]
"The committee will come up with a solution to the phase out row," said Bhim Raj Adhikari, Registrar of TU. PM Nepal who attended TU´s senate--the supreme body of the university--on Thursday in his capacity of the Chancellor of the country´s oldest as well as largest varsity instructed MoE secretary Dipendra Bikram Thapa to end the row at the earliest amidst pressures from agitating student unions.
Dozens of students who gathered in front of the office of TU Vice Chancellor (VC) while the senate was on in presence of PM Nepal had shouted slogans against the government´s failure for upgrading community +2 schools. The unions have been demanding that the government strengthen community +2 schools before PCL phase out so that poor students would not be deprived of higher education.
However, even after PM Nepal´s intervention, the unions are yet to call off their agitation. "We will discuss it afterwards," Pradip Poudel, President of Nepal Students´ Union (NSU), one of the agitating unions, said. As part of their agitation, the unions are scheduled to padlock TU and Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB).