Nepal’s Public school staffers call off school closure
They had threatened to close community schools across the country indefinitely from Sunday to press the government to address their demands.
Kathmandu: A total of three organisations of public school staffers on Sunday called off the indefinite closure of schools.
In a statement, the Nepal Public School Employees’ Council, Nepal Public School Employees Association and Nepal School Employees Union said they postponed the planned protest following the government’s call for the talks.
The organisations warned of resuming protests if the government fails to pay heed to their demands through talks and refuses to implement past agreements.
The government on Friday formed a talks team headed by the director general of the Centre for Education Development and Human Resource Development to hold dialogue with the agitating staffers.
The administrative staff at public schools across the country are up in arms demanding better pay and perks. They have accused the government of cheating them as the national budget fails to address the agreements reached with them a few months back.
They had threatened to close community schools across the country indefinitely from Sunday to press the government to address their demands.
The government and the Nepal Public School Employees’ Council had on February 2 reached an agreement where the former agreed to adjust their salaries on par with that of civil servants of corresponding levels. The government’s policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year had promised to address the demands. However, the finance minister didn’t allocate the budget as per the pledge.
Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah on Saturday had warned of taking stern action against staffers of public schools in the metropolis if they close schools.
In a social media post, Shah warned that the administrative staffers or teachers will be sacked if they are absent and the school management committees will be dissolved if they disrupt classes or fail to act to hold regular classes.
