KATHMANDU, April 27: Three student unions affiliated to different political parties have submitted memorandums to all 753 local bodies demanding revocation of the "illegal fee hikes" at private schools.
Representatives of the UML's All Nepal National Free Student Union (ANNFSU), Nepali Congress' Nepal Students' Union (NSU) and Maoist Center's All Nepal National Independent Student Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) submitted memorandums to the local bodies protesting against the fee hikes and to urge the government to compel the schools to revoke the hikes.
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"We submitted memorandums on Friday to all local units as the law allows the local bodies to regulate private schools," said Pushpa Kumar Shahi, vice president of the NSU.
The student unions held a meeting on April 16 to discuss the fee hike and decided to submit a memorandum to Prime Minister KP Oli on April 17 urging government intervention to revoke the hike.
However, Prime Minister Oli has not given the unions an appointment to submit the memo yet, said Shahi. "If the prime minister does not give us an appointment within two days, we will stage protests in the areas where the government recently prohibited protests," he warned. The government had recently banned demonstrations and public gatherings at various places including Maitighar Mandala, the most popular public demonstration venue at the heart of the capital, and designated seven places for organizing such gatherings and demonstrations.
As their annual schedule, the private schools have increased the tuition fees by up to 30 percent and charged up to Rs 200,000 as admission fees for the new academic session that began on April 14. In addition, private schools have collected re-admission fees from the students against the rules. There are about 6,000 private (institutional) schools across the country.
