By Manjima Dhakal
Kathmandu, Jan. 26: About 7 million school students across the country are in dilemma about their academic session as the government has remained undecided on the matter for a very long time. They have started attending schools physically after the concerned local levels allowed reopening the schools and their classes physically in light of the dwindling cases of coronavirus infections.
Following the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology’s (MoEST) guideline for schools’ operation, many schools started conducting classes physically since November last year. At the moment, all local governments except for Kathmandu Metropolitan City have allowed schools to run physical classes.
In the past, academic session used to end in March. But, that is not the case this year, because it has been mired in uncertainty due to the government’s indecision.
The MoEST said that it had already sent the proposal regarding the academic session to the Cabinet. Deepak Sharma, its spokesperson, said that the Ministry had sent the proposal seeking to extend academic session by two months starting from March.
“If the proposal is approved, schools can comfortably complete their courses by the extended period. However, if it isn’t approved, the Ministry is planning to ask the schools to delay their final examinations by shortening exam vacations of this session and admission period of the coming session,” he said.
That said, the indecision on the part of the government has led to difficulty in planning the course for the current and forthcoming academic years, said D.K Dhungana, co-chairman of the Private and Boarding School Organisation of Nepal.
Suprabhat Bhandari, chairman of the National Guardian Federation, said they could not feel the presence of government in the country due to its indecision on such crucial matter.
He added that prior to concluding an academic session, it must make sure the students attend the school at least for 175 days in an academic year and they must show minimum learning achievement.
“The federal government must be flexible in extending date of academic session and if that happens, the local governments can plan accordingly,” he said.
The stakeholders are expecting a concrete decision from the authority to clear the confusion surrounding the current as well as the next academic sessions.