KATHMANDU, Aug 29: Due to the strict policy adopted by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) to regulate the education sector, private schools have started relocating. After Mayor Balendra Shah of KMC directed private schools to operate in accordance with the School Education Management Regulations 2074 BS, various private schools have relocated to neighboring municipalities.

In the current academic session, four private schools have shifted to neighboring municipalities. Three have submitted applications for relocations. According to the Education Department of the KMC, some other private schools have also decided to relocate. According to Moti Raj Khanal, head of the private school monitoring branch under the Metropolitan Education Department, Little World English School located in Kathmandu Metropolitan City-14 has moved to Kirtipur Municipality. Rainbow International Boarding School located in Kathmandu Metropolitan Municipality-15 has moved to Nagarjuna Municipality-3. Greenwich Academy Secondary School was being operated in Pepsicola in Kathmandu for a long time. The school has moved to Kageshwori Manohara Municipality-7. Saraswoti Kunj Secondary School is another school that has relocated. This school, which moved from Kathmandu Metropolitan Municipality-30, will now conduct all its educational programs from Kageshwori Manohara Municipality-7.

Three more schools from the metropolis are in the process of relocating to nearby municipalities in the near future. According to Khanal, the school has already submitted an application for relocation to a nearby municipality. Among the three schools that have submitted applications for relocation, Nirvana Academy is about to move from Kathmandu Metropolitan Municipality-15 to Nagarjuna Municipality-5. According to Khanal, the Kathmandu Valley School located in Chhauni is also preparing to move to Syuchatar in Nagarjuna Municipality-9. Similarly, Shree Buddha Secondary English School has submitted an application seeking permission to relocate to Gokarneshwor Municipality.

Why did private schools relocate?

KMC Mayor Shah directed the private schools to bring uniformity in their names and logos within five months as a part of the strict implementation of the School Education Management Regulation 2074 BS. KMC Mayor Shah had instructed all private schools to work according to their names and to maintain consistency in the school logo through social media. By making it clear that sub-rules 1 and 2 of rules 69 and 70 of the school education management regulation 2074 BS are trying to bring uniformity in the names and logos of the schools, Mayor Shah instructed schools to follow the regulation through social media.

Rule 69 provisions for a hexagram to be the logo of a school. However, the rule also mentions keeping the school’s name or other symbols in the middle of the hexagram if the school management committee so decides. Similarly, in rule 70 of the regulation, it is stipulated that schools should be named after individuals who have made significant contributions to society and the nation or after historical figures, deities, places of pilgrimage or natural resources, etc. in such a way as to reflect Nepaliness.

Sub-rule 2 of rule 70 of the regulation stipulates that if a private school wants to add the word ‘International’ to its name, at least one-third of the number of foreign students must be enrolled in the school. Similarly, in the same rule, it is mentioned that if an institutional school wants to add the word 'Public' to its name, at least one-third of the students should be studying on full scholarships. There is also a provision that if an institutional school wants to add the word 'National', there should be students from at least 25 districts. The regulation has made provision that the word 'School' or 'Pathshala' must also be added at the end of the school name.

According to Sita Ram Koirala, the head of the Education Department at KMC, the regulation stipulates that if a name has been included using phrasing that contradicts this rule prior to the enactment of the by-law, there exists a provision either to adhere to the specified regulation or to rename it. This alteration would then come into effect starting from the commencement of the second academic session subsequent to the issuance of the regulation.

However, even after six years of the issuance of the regulations, the implementation was not effective, so the Metropolitan Education Department took a more assertive initiative. "When the metropolis started to organize private education, it was seen that the schools sought for a municipality with a loose education policy instead of adopting sincere education policy," said Head Koirala.

Koirala said that if schools with names contrary to this rule at the time of its initiation wish to rectify their nomenclature, they must obtain approval from the metropolitan municipality for the renaming process. The Head of the Education Department also said that schools have failed to adhere to this arrangement, which includes implementing the re-naming prior to the commencement of the second academic session.

Schools have started shifting to other places after instructions were given that the metropolis will be forced to take legal action against those schools if the rules are not followed. Not only this, the metropolis says that the metropolis is facing difficulties when they try to manage even the 10 percent scholarship provided by private schools. According to Khanal, there were 640 private schools operating in the metropolis until the year before the Covid-19 pandemic, but now it has been limited to 512. "Some private schools were out of students and staff after Covid-19, while some merged," Khanal said. "Currently, due to the tightening of the policy, some schools have started relocating to nearby municipalities with the pretext of lack of space," he added.

Thakin Kumar Gurung, the central vice president of PABSON, the umbrella organization of private schools, said that when it became difficult to run private schools in Kathmandu, they started migrating to nearby municipalities. According to him, KMC tried to enforce the rules but could not make the process easy, so many schools have started moving to other places as it is easier than re-naming. "One has to pay a fee of Rs 50,000 to correct the name of the school, the process is very complicated," said Vice President Gurung. He claimed that the school was forced to move because the house rent in Kathmandu was very expensive when the lockdown with the start of Covid-19 had a big impact on private schools.

 
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