Both sides bypassing mediation efforts: Govt officials
NIRJANA SHARMA
KATHMANDU, Feb 26: The agitating All Nepal Teachers´ Union and All Nepal National Independent Student Union - Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) vandalized three vehicles of DAV Sushil Kedia School early on Monday. The government officials in the high level committee formed to resolve the dispute between the school authority and teachers have said that the teachers have adopted dual policy which has complicated the case for long time.
Despite a “confidential” agreement among the protesting teachers and students aligned with CPN-Maoist on Saturday, the demonstrators vandalized two buses at Pulchowk and Sanepa and a car owned by the DAV school Principal Bhuwaneshori Rao in Kupondole.
Shankar Karki, coordinator of the committee formed by the Ministry of Education (MoE), claimed that the teachers´ union chairman Gun Raj Lohani and the DAV School founder Anil Kedia held a meeting on Saturday and agreed on various points to end the protest.
“I have learned that the two stakeholders had agreed during the Saturday´s on reinstating the three teachers fired by the school and on lobbying the government to get the textbooks prescribed by the Indian Council of Secondary Education approved,” said Karki.
“I have reported to the Department of Education on Monday that the teachers themselves are now complicating the issue even after the agreement.”
On the basis of the agreement, the committee has already prepared a draft accord on Sunday to settle the case, but now the teachers´ group has vandalized the school vehicles, according to Karki. "Both the school and teachers have bypassed the government."
The teacher union leader Lohani has, meanwhile, claimed that there had only been an informal discussion with the school authority and no final agreement was reached during the meeting on Saturday.
The agitating group´s leaders, however, claimed that reinstating teachers was not enough and accused the school of using textbooks that undermine the national sovereignty.
“The protest will continue on Tuesday and Wednesday restricting the movement of the school´s vehicles,” he said.
Meanwhile, the school authority has said that it will not accept those showing unsocial activities in the streets as teachers in the future.
“The teachers tried to hamper classes even though the dialogues were continuing,” said Ram Chandra Khanal, vice-principal of the school. He claimed that the teachers with political interest are trying to ruin the school´s image in the long run.
The school, which has more than 3500 students, employs 72 buses that carry more than 90 percent of the students in two shifts.
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Both Sides Bypassing Mediation Efforts: Govt Officials
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