KATHMANDU, Feb 26: The government has brought a bill to maintain uniformity in the Acts related to several universities.

In this connection, the House of Representatives today passed the 'Bill Amending Some Nepal Acts Related to Education, 2076'. Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Giriraj Mani Pokharel informed the House that the bill has been brought to sort out several topics, contained in the related Act, which are inconsistent in reference to before and after 2006.

The Education Minister presented a proposal in the House seeking passage of the bill.

The meeting passed the bill. The bill was brought in 2075 BS. The bill has been re-introduced after making some revisions in it following discussions in the National Assembly and the House of Representatives.

Responding to the questions raised by lawmakers in course of the discussions on the principles of the bill, Minister Pokharel argued that the bill was necessitated to have uniformity by making the various past Acts in consistent with the constitution. "There is a need to maintain uniformity regarding the topic of the Acts related to various universities and systematize the fundamental rights related topics in the constitution. The bill has been brought as the name and wordings concerning some Ministries have to be adjusted," the Education Minister said, explaining about the expediency of the bill.

Regarding the question by lawmakers that the government has not paid due attention to just distribution of scholarship to students, Education Minister Pokharel said the Medical Education Act has been recently implemented and 75 per cent scholarship provisions have been implemented in public medical colleges this year alone.

He added that the Ministry was committed to making arrangements for the practical implementation of the provisions in the constitution. He said that the government has brought a plan with the goal of removing the challenges faced by the children from the poor, underprivileged, dalit and marginalised communities in getting access to affordable medical education.

Minister Pokharel shared that programme has been initiated for strengthening the community schools by declaring the decade from 2076 BS to 2085 BS as the 'Decade for Strengthening Community Schools'. He expressed the belief that the desired results would come after the plan was implemented. Scholarships have been ensured to the children of the enforced disappeared persons and those injured in course of the conflict.

He also informed that the Education Policy has been finalized based on the inputs from the Ministry of Law and three bills related to universities, higher education and vocational education have been drafted on the basis of this policy. These bills have been forwarded to the related ministries for the opinion on them.

Stating that a draft of a separate education bill has been prepared expounding the role that needs to be played in relation with the individual and concurrent list of rights of the federation, province and local levels as stipulated in the constitution, he said this bill would be brought in parliament at the earliest.

Taking part in the discussions, Nepal Workers and Peasants Party lawmaker Prem Suwal said the bill should ensure that the Ministry of Education and the Minister would be free from the dominance and clutches of the 'education mafia'.

He also stressed on the need of having provisions in the bill which ensure that only students studying the government and public education trust-run schools get the scholarships. Whip of the main opposition party, Nepali Congress, Pushpa Bhusal said the amended version of the bill did not address the federalism. She alleged that the Ministery has failed to give attention toward quality vocational education in the bill related to vocational education.

She also urged the government to bring the bills related to university, higher education and vocational education at the earliest. Lawmakers Renuka Gurung, Chhaka Bahadur Lama among others also took part in the discussions on the bill.

The House of Representatives will next meet at 1pm tomorrow.

 
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