The government took the decision to check the growing tendency of government employees to seek transfers to urban areas on the pretext of educating their children. The decision also aims at ensuring that children of government employees are not deprived of education and that such education is not affected due to frequent transfers of their parents from one district to another.
“The decision to this effect has been taken to ensure an education for the children of all levels of civil servants as such children often face trouble obtaining quality and uninterrupted education,” said State Minister for General Administration Jeetu Gautam.
Gautam further told myrepublica.com that the government plans to implement the decision in two phases, with the establishment of schools in Doti and Dhankuta districts in the first phase. Preparations for setting up the schools are near completion.
Gautam further said that officials of his ministry are working on the details like the models for the schools and their facilities.
Spokesperson at the Ministry of General Administration Chandra Ghimire said the residential schools will help end the tendency of civil servants demanding transfers to urban areas just for the sake of their children´s education. According to the ministry, more than 50 percent of job transfer applications filed at the ministry have cited interruption and quality of education for the children as the reason.
“It will bring substantial change in demands for transfer and help stop demands for Kathmandu-centric transfers,” Gautam said, adding, ”The proposed schools will thus boost the work efficiency of government offices located outside Kathmandu.”
State Minister Gautam expressed confidence that the residential schools will ensure continuous and quality education for children of bureaucrats.
MoGA said the government has already allocated Rs 40 million for the project. “We will do the homework for establishing such schools in other areas also depending on the budget provided in the years to come,” spokesperson Ghimire added.
Ghimire hopes that civil servants will not be worried about their children´s education and their future once the plan comes into effect. Officials said that MoGA is working to implement the project at the earliest.
However, some administration experts have expressed reservations over the long-standing demand for setting up residential schools for civil servants´ children. “The government should beware that it could create discrimination between the children of government employees and those of the general public,” former secretary Khem Raj Nepal told myrepublica.com.
He also stressed the need for interaction among children of the general public and civil servants. “If separate schools are set up especially for the children of government employees it is likely to create an interaction gap between the children of the public and those of civil servants.” Nepal added.
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