Education Secretary Suresh Adhikari on Tuesday stressed the need to convert all private schools into trusts.

Speaking in the first session of the Kantipur Education Summit 2080, Adhikari said new schools should be established as education trusts, and that existing education institutes must eventually follow suit.

“The bill currently under discussion in the parliament will facilitate the voluntary conversion of all existing private schools to trusts,” Adhikari said. “The private institutes also play a vital role in the education sector, and it is the government’s view that they should not be disregarded. Yet they should also not be allowed to be excessively profitable.”

Similarly, Laxmi Devi Pandey, chairperson of the National Association of Rural Municipalities in Nepal, emphasised the need to keep the secondary level under the jurisdiction of the local units.

Pandey said that the provision in the education bill to put public school teachers under the federal government’s jurisdiction would contradict the spirit of federalism as the constitution states that the jurisdiction up to the secondary level should be under local units.

“The local units will be able to closely monitor and evaluate... Only if we walk the right path will we reach our destination,” Pandey said. “Education is the driving force of change. I am hopeful that the provision, which is against the constitution, will be revised.”

The local units have directly or indirectly invested in all higher education institutes run from the local level, Pandey said, adding that increasing politicisation and non-compliance with the yearly education plan has led to universities like the Tribhuvan University and the Purbhanchal University to fall out of students’ priorities, as students increasingly opt for foreign destinations.

Pandey stressed that Nepal’s education would lose its credibility if meritocracy isn’t introduced in recruitment of leadership roles like that of the vice chancellor.

Likewise, Chairman of the University Grants Commission Devraj Adhikari said that there was an immediate need for the improvement of the quality of community schools to eliminate the disparity in education.

Adhikari said that the poor quality of education at school level was evident in higher education, stressing that the education bill should be endorsed at the earliest to improve education quality of community schools.

The UGC chair added that the government should review possible effects of converting private schools to trusts, stating that the contribution of the private institutes was vast and that their quality of education was also relatively better.

President of the Higher Institutions and Secondary Schools’ Association Nepal (HISSAN) Ramesh Kumar Silwal also voiced his opinion regarding the conversion of private schools, adding that the inclusion of such legal provision in the Act was concerning.

Silwal claimed that the provision was against the constitution.

“Nobody has the right to introduce a provision that is against the constitution.

If the institutes are registered as companies, they should be allowed to run as such.”

The HISSAN president stressed that private schools were not operated illegally, adding that although education is meant for catering service, it is also a business.