Protesting against a provision in the school education bill, students wings of ruling and opposition parties have jointly stood in favour of mandatory conversion of private schools into trusts.

The bill registered in parliament by the Pushpa Kamal Dahal administration in September doesn’t make it mandatory for existing private schools to get converted into trusts. Most private schools are registered under the Company Act.

Speaking before the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee of the House of Representatives on Sunday, student leaders from various parties in one voice claimed that converting the privately-owned schools into trusts is the only way to stop rampant commercialisation of school education.

Pancha Singh, chairperson of the All Nepal National Independent Union (Revolutionary), said the bill is against the spirit of the constitution. “Education is not a business. But the proposed law, making the conversion voluntarily, goes against the spirit of the constitution,” said Singh. “We must be mindful that the education Act is guided by the constitution.”

Earlier in August the government had prepared the bill with a provision that the private schools must be converted into trusts within five years. But, following strong reservations from private school owners, the provision was omitted when the bill was registered in Parliament.

The bill that is under discussion in the House committee leaves it up to the existing schools whether to convert into trusts. Almost all the private schools registered under the Company Act don’t want to convert their legal ownership. The bill, however, creates hurdles for new entrants in the private education sector, not allowing them to operate under the Company Act.

Arati Lama, chairperson of the CPN (Unified Socialist)-affiliated All Nepal National Free Student Union, said private schools must be converted into trusts within five years. “The constitution talks about socialism. How can we think of socialism by having two types of education? We must not backtrack on converting the private schools into trusts,” she said. She argued that two classes of human resources were being produced by the two types of schools—private and public.

The bill that is expected to be presented in the federal parliament for endorsement in the upcoming session, has received amendments from 152 lawmakers. While some lawmakers have favoured retaining private schools in the present form, some have lodged amendments saying such schools must be registered as trusts, even though the proposed duration for such registration varies between five to 10 years.

Through amendment proposals, cross-party lawmakers have also proposed that the same rule apply to all schools, no matter when they are registered.

The CPN-UML-affiliated All Nepal National Free Students Union said the bill was introduced without adequate consultations with stakeholders. “There should be no private investment in school education. Let’s give five to seven years for the conversion,” said Samik Badal, chairperson of the union.

There is an old debate about the ownership of private schools. The High-level Education Commission in 2019 had recommended converting private schools into trusts within 10 years. It, however, was never made public by the government of the day, led by KP Sharma Oli. The private school operators had objected to the report.

Appearing before the House committee last week the representatives of the private schools had threatened to resort to street protests and submit the keys of their schools to the government if they were forced to convert into trusts. Government officials too have defended the bill saying the private schools must not be compelled to register as trusts.

Putting their views in the committee, officials at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology had said last week that everyone should consider that Nepal embraces a three-pillar economic model—with the government, cooperatives and the private sector as actors—where private schools have an important place. “Our focus should be on monitoring private schools [not changing their ownership],” said Suresh Adhikari, secretary at the ministry. “The discussion’s focus should be on increasing scholarships and controlling the monopoly [of schools] in fixing the fee structure.”

The student leaders said along with the strong regulation of private schools, those who hold government positions must be legally bound to enrol their children in public schools. Nepal Students Union President Dujang Sherpa said those who hold public office must enrol their children in public schools. “Only then will public education improve,” he said.

The cross-party student leaders have demanded a legal provision to make it mandatory for the government to set aside a minimum of 20 percent of the national budget for the education sector.