School Operating Procedure Prepared:
A teacher working in a community school that receives a salary facility from the state treasury has to go to the school where he works till the second week of Shrawan. Although there is no environment for the immediate reopening of schools and direct interviews in the presence of teachers and students, all teachers have to be present in the schools where they work.
Joint Secretary and Spokesperson of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Deepak Sharma, said that arrangements were being made for all the teachers to reach the school after complaints were raised that the school environment was not conducive to the preparation and alternative learning campaign.
A new arrangement is being made for teachers after complaints were received that online classes could not be conducted in many public schools and even teachers did not reach the schools. The government is under pressure to take a policy decision in this regard after the complaints that more than 175,000 teachers working in community schools have availed government facilities but teachers have not been able to attend school. There are complaints that most government teachers have not been able to engage in alternative education.
Even though the teachers working in the institutional schools have to take to the streets for a salary facility, this is not the case with the community school teachers and the teachers have understood their facilities on time.
Earlier, the government had paved the way for community school teachers to reach out to their schools if possible and to support the government's alternative learning campaign from nearby schools if possible. Now it is said that the situation is no more. In addition, the government had prepared a procedure to mobilize school teachers to get involved in the preparations for the re-operation of the school and to provide textbooks to the students.
Spokesperson Sharma clarified that no one has stopped the teacher from going to his school at present and in case of any problem, necessary coordination will be made from the local level and other ministries. He said that contact with the students will be established after the teachers reach the school and the work including new enrollment and archiving of the students will be easier.
The ministry has also clarified that no plan has been made so far as to when the school will reopen. He said that it would be decided by the modality of the ban to be taken by the government in the coming days. He said that in case any local level or school wants to open a school, the ministry will facilitate the pre-preparation. The Ministry is finalizing the criteria required for that.
The Nepal National Teachers Association, an umbrella organization of teachers, has taken it positively and said that the government should focus on guaranteeing the health security of teachers. Nepal National Teachers Association President Baburam Thapa said that it would be difficult for teachers to go to the classroom without security and there was a risk of infection.
Stating that it was difficult for the teachers of the Himalayan and hilly districts to reach their schools, he said that they have taken the government's preparations to attend the schools in a positive manner. The federation has demanded that quarantine should be removed from 4,600 community schools across the country.
