Interestingly, the strike coincided with the announcement by the mother party of fresh protests against the rejection by Speaker Subas Nembang to take up a resolution against the president in the parliament. This, and the fact that those announcing the strike were sitting on their demands for nine months when their mother party was in power, are reasons enough to conclude that the demands are political tools that Institutional Schools Teachers’ Union and the Nepal Education Republican Forum use time and again to harangue a non-Maoist government.
Whatever the intention behind such strikes, the ones who lose the most are students, who are likely to sit idle at home on Monday as well when a general strike is likely to be enforced in Kathmandu by the Newa Mukti Morcha. With a non-Maoist coalition in power, such strikes are likely to be more and more frequent in the coming days.
It is sad to note that the educational calendar of a child studying in Nepal is dotted with such avoidable no-school days. It is not surprising that the most common reason Nepali youth give for leaving the country after completing their higher secondary education is Nepal’s erratic educational calendar caused by a string of strikes in educational institutions. In the long run, such strikes are likely to kill the faith of our children in our country and leaving for overseas education and finally settling there might no longer be a choice but a necessity. After all, a proper educational environment is an inalienable right of every child. Those who infringe upon the rights of children do not have the moral ground to even pretend to fight for someone else’s rights.
Strikes in educational institutions for whatsoever reason should be made illegal and punishable. The centers of knowledge should be kept above politics so that when the country emerges from the transition as a stable democracy it has at its disposal a sensible, educated and competent generation to steer the country to prosperity.
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