Schools resume

Private and public schools that were shut down for last 9 days resumed from Monday. The schools across the country resumed as the agitating teachers allowed opening the schools following the assurance from eight political parties.

The meeting between representatives of the Nepal Educational Republican Forum and Maoists' student wing reached the decision to allow the schools to resume classes.

However, teachers have still stayed ways from talks stating that there was no conducive environment for talks.

The Forum had launched an indefinite closure of schools since May 19 demanding the fulfillment of their five-point demands which include provision of appointment letters, minimum benefits and annulment of the Company Act, among others, in order to stop commercialization of the education sector.

As a precondition for talks, Forum has been saying that Education Minister should apologize for the police interference in the sit in program in front of Education Ministry on Friday.

The representatives of the Forum stayed away from much anticipated talks with the Education Ministry officials in presence of Minister of State Mohan Singh Rathore on Sunday evening. Forum representative said they decided not to sit in the talks due to lack of conducive environment. No new date for the talks has been set.

The Forum has warned to resume its strike after one month (from June 27) if their demands were not met. Since May 17, over 35000 schools across the country were remained shut down. Over 7.8 million students have been affected with the indefinite strike launched by the Forum.