Agitating teachers under the banner of Nepal Teachers’ Federation have announced a general strike in school education from Monday to exert more pressure on the government to get their demands met.

The federation, which is the umbrella body of school teachers, asked the teachers across the country to shut their schools and come to the federal capital to join the protest. They have been asked not to accomplish any of their responsibilities including result preparations.

“A general strike has been announced in the schools starting April 7 to strengthen the ongoing movement,” reads an appeal by the federation. “We urge all teachers and staff members to compulsorily participate in the educational movement in Kathmandu by closing all schools across the country. Also, the federation requests not to accomplish any kinds of responsibilities like answer sheet evaluation, result publication, and not to attend training workshops, seminars or educational tours.”

The federation has announced the strike at a time when the preparations were ongoing to start evaluating answer sheets for the Secondary Education Examination and enrollment campaign for the new academic session. New academic session starts from April 15.

“The government has frequently called them for dialogue. I personally have called the chairperson of the federation for the talks. I even met the protesters during the protest,” Bidya Bhattarai, minister for education, told the Post. “They have refused to sit for dialogue arguing there is nothing to discuss.”

The agitators say they are demanding enactment of a new School Education Act incorporating the agreements reached in the past. “If the ruling parties want, there is no barrier to endorsing the bill or issuing an ordinance,” said Laxmi Kishor Subedi, the federation’s chair. “All we need is a new law. We are not ending the protest until the Act is enacted.”

Bhattarai, however, says as the discussion over the bill is ongoing in the Education Committee of the lower house giving a due priority with a plan to table it in the budget session for the endorsement.

“We want to assure that it will be tabled in the upcoming session,” she said. “While I agree that it has been late for the new Act, it is also a fact that the bill covers the broader issues that require intense discussions.”

The bill that is being discussed in a sub-committee under the education committee received 1,758 amendments from 161 lawmakers. The number has been brought down to 1,154 now. Several of them are mutually contradictory in nature including teacher management. As the constitution lists school education as the absolute authority of the local government, some lawmakers want teachers to work under the local governments. However, there are amendments to continue them under the federal government, as education has been listed as the concurrent authority of all tiers of government.

The federation sealed three agreements with successive governments in the past. When Devendra Paudel of the CPN (Maoist Centre) was the education minister, he had agreed that the teachers would be under the federal government, though the constitution envisions that local governments can manage school education. Teachers want that provision to be included in the new Act.

Right after the government introduced the bill in the federal parliament in September 2023, the federation staged a Kathmandu-centric agitation objecting to different provisions in the bill. Thousands of teachers staged protests in Kathmandu, disrupting life in the capital city and forcing the government into a dialogue.

They withdrew the protest after forging a six-point deal with the government, which promised to address their demands by revising the bill. Along with retaining the teachers under the federal government, their other demands are including them in the order of precedence and increasing the entry age of a teacher to 40.

Meanwhile, they have also demanded that payment of the salary on a monthly basis and pay and perks at par with the civil servants are ensured. Moreover, they have also demanded a dedicated hospital for teachers just like there is an army hospital, police hospitals and a Civil Service Hospital.

Despite repeated commitments made by the political leadership, the bill couldn’t be endorsed by the parliament following huge differences among the lawmakers.

Thousands of teachers, who have descended in Kathmandu, held a whistle rally on Sunday. Before starting the mass show on Wednesday, the federation had held a series of sit-ins at the party offices of different political forces and educational authorities.