Nepal: Teachers reject new education bill, warn of resuming protests

Kathmandu, May 21 The Nepal Teachers' Federation has threatened to launch stronger protests expressing concerns over the School Education Bill passed by the country's parliamentary subcommittee.

The federation stated that the bill does not respect the teachers' movement and past agreements, and called on the Education, Health, and Information Technology Committee of the House of Representatives to revise it, addressing their concerns, local media reported on Wednesday.

The warning followed weeks after the federation withdrew the month-long protest after they reached a consensus with the government.

"If it doesn't happen, teachers and staff will take to the streets with an even larger force. We want to make it clear that the state will be solely responsible for any grave situation that arises as a result," said the federation.

Expressing concern, the federation stated that the revised version is more regressive than the original bill that was registered in Parliament in September 2023.

"The agreement for internal competition for temporary teachers (including relief quota teachers, temporary contract teachers, teachers from former lower secondary schools, learning grant teachers, technical stream, and special education) has not been upheld. Furthermore, temporary contract and learning grant teachers have been excluded from internal competition," read the statement issued by the federation on Tuesday.

The bill proposed that 60 per cent of the seats will be filled through internal competition, while the remaining 40 per cent of vacancies will be filled through open competition.

Additionally, the federation voices dissatisfaction over the bill's provision that teachers must complete a minimum of seven years of service to qualify for automatic promotion.

"It does not include any provision for counting years of temporary service for teachers who later became permanent. The agreement to take temporary service periods into account to qualify for the pension has been ignored in the new bill," reads the statement.

The federation objected to the provision of putting school teachers under local governments.

"Teachers are being forcibly transferred to the local level without any benefits or alternatives," said the federation.

Furthermore, the federation vehemently opposed the clause prohibiting teachers from holding political affiliation and preventing head teachers from becoming federation members.

"This undermines the right to engage in professional trade union activities of teachers and staff," it argues.

"It seems the state is inviting a new wave of teacher and staff protests," warned the federation, urging all teachers and staff to remain vigilant and prepared for a movement.

Reports suggest that the parliamentary education committee is to start deliberations on the bill on Wednesday.

The ruling Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) have reportedly given in writing, ensuring that the bill gets through the lower house of Nepal's Parliament on May 29.

Earlier, the month-long teachers' demonstrations and sit-ins in the Maitighar-Naya Baneshwor area of Kathmandu had severely disrupted the national enrollment drive, delayed key academic tasks, such as evaluating answer sheets from the recently held Secondary Education Examination (SEE), and postponement of grade 12 examination.

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