All private schools in Danusha, Nepal remained close on Thursday due to an indefinite announcement called by the private schools organizations in the district (By NepalNews.com). Various private schools organization had gone on strike due to the District Education Officer’s refusal to include private schools in the district education committee. The agitation began when DEO’s ignored private schools when forming an education committee. Raj Khumar Jha of private schools said that private schools will remain shut until the District Education Officers grant their request.

The conflict started in 2008 when the Maoist (Marxist-Leninist) the communist party of Nepal won the April elections and took over the previous government. The Maoist, communistic ideology about education seriously brought huge social issues by storm. Maoists wanted educational equality because they believe that it’s an unfair advantage over public schools. Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai declared that Nepal should stop from investing into private education by 2010 and private school investors should limit their said investments because the government shall now carry the burden of educating Nepal’s youth. The problem aggravates because private schools account nearly 1/3 of Nepal’s school institutions. But the experts are contradicting such plan. According to them the plan is extremely ambitious and highly unlikely to succeed. Mani Wagle (proprietor of Miniland School in Kathmandu) explained that two years is not enough for the government to provide an alternative arrangement for millions of private school goers and thousands of teachers in private schools. Nepal’s government schools said to be poor of infrastructure and some classes were conducted outside due to insufficient classrooms.

The Maoists government is also planning to give scholarships to Maoists fighters who quit school to join the war. Khanai (Tribhuvan University Professor) calls the idea unacceptable and said that those fighters are the same revolutionary leaders who said Nepal’s education is useless and urged youth to leave school and join the war. (The Christian Science Monitor)