Talks between agitating teachers, government end in positive note

Kathmandu, Apr. 30: The talks between the government and the representatives of the agitating schoolteachers concluded inconclusively on Tuesday night. With a hope of reaching a conclusion, the representatives of Nepal Teachers' Federation reached the Ministry of Education and Science and Technology for a dialogue with the Education Minister Raghuji Pant on Tuesday evening. But the meeting could not reach a conclusion but ended in a positive note.  

 Federation's Vice-chairperson, Nanumaya Parajuli, said that agreement could not be reached as the government failed to show flexibility regarding their main demands. 

In another note, Parajuli said the federation was positive to hold the examination of grade 12, and most probably, the meeting scheduled for Wednesday, will yield some concrete results. 

Talking to media persons at the Ministry, Education Minister Pant said that he was confident that the dialogue would reach a conclusion by Wednesday. The environment of the dialogue is moving on a positive and coordinated way, he said. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Bishnu Prasad Paudel and Minister for Home Affairs Ramesh Lekhak were also present in the meeting for an hour. But they left the meeting before it ended. 

Early exit of DPM Paudel and Home Minister Lekhak from the meeting cast doubt about the success of the talks.

  Nepal Teachers’ Federation has reiterated that it is willing to reconsider the modality of their ongoing protest if the government agrees to fulfill its nine-point demands through a Cabinet-level decision.

This decision was reached during the Federation’s internal meeting on Tuesday afternoon. Following the meeting, formal negotiations resumed between the Federation’s representatives and the government. The Federation had earlier resolved to hold decisive talks with the government with a clear roadmap to implement previous agreements.

Although the Ministry of Education had originally scheduled talks for 3 pm on Tuesday, the meeting was delayed by five hours late due to the prolonged internal discussions within the Federation. This development comes a day after two rounds of preliminary talks between government and teacher representatives on Monday. 

Meanwhile, Chief of the Education Department of the Nepali Congress, Nain Singh Mahar, has said that the talks between the government and teachers’ federation are heading toward an agreement.

Speaking with district presidents of the Nepal Teachers' Association and representatives of the Federation of Community School Management Committees on Tuesday, Mahar said that continuous dialogue has brought them close to an agreement.

He said that discussions are ongoing for the protesting teachers to return to their workplaces by Wednesday.

The schoolteachers have been protesting in Kathmandu since April 2.