Former education minister and lawmaker of the Rastriya Swatantra Party Shishir Khanal on Tuesday said the current government doesn’t have the capacity to immediately convert private schools into trusts.

Speaking at the fourth session ‘The politicised education system’ during the Kantipur Education Summit, the former minister said his party proposed converting private schools into trust after 20 years of operation to become a little generous, adding whether school education is a public asset or a private entity is the major question.

“The government has the responsibility to provide quality education. But there are also practical difficulties,” said Khanal. “Even though the investment in the education sector amounts to Rs200 billion, we have a shortfall of 55,000 teachers.”

Also speaking, CK Raut, Chair of Janamat Party said the literacy rate of Madhesh Province is the lowest due to the state’s neglect. Raut said they had to enter politics as the state didn’t prioritise Madhesh.

“We have been saying for two decades that Madhesh is not a priority of the state,” he said. “Now the literacy rate of Madhesh is much lower than that of Karnali Province. Not only this, Madhesh province is the last in the human development index. But why was the state not given priority?”

Likewise, Nepali Congress lawmaker and central committee member Pradeep Paudel said political parties should discuss the policy of universities. “We did politics within the structure. We should have done that in the policy," he said.

Similarly, UML lawmaker Bidya Bhattarai said that the campaign to build a socialist-oriented education should start from the School Education Bill which is under consideration in the House of Representatives. Bhattarai said the focus should be on what policy to take now and how to move forward rather than what happened in the past.