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Minister for Education, Science, and Technology Giriraj Mani Pokharel has asserted that the government has given top priority to expanding the technical education and the work of establishing technical high schools in each province has been forwarded.

Education Minister Pokharel made this assertion while responding to the queries by MPs during discussions on the Appropriation Bill in the meeting of the House of Representatives today. He informed the House that 10.23 percent of the total budget has been allocated to the education sector this time.

Stating that the Higher Education Commission has already been constituted, he said attention has been given to increasing the efficiency of the community schools, works on setting up schools for the differently-able pupils have been moved ahead in all the seven provinces, attention has been given to establishing model schools and feasibility study has been forwarded regarding setting up engineering colleges in all provinces.

“Appropriate budget has been allotted to the universities including the Nepal Sanskrit University and Tribhuvan University. Shortage of school textbooks was not seen during this academic year.

Provisions have been made for providing mid-day meals as well as scholarships to the students from the Dalit, indigenous nationalities and marginalized communities,” the Education Minister said.

He stated that the student enrolment campaign has made a notable progress, adding, “Out of the total 313,000 children of the school-going age, only 59,000 are yet to be admitted to schools. The Minister further said that household survey has also been started to bring the remaining children of the school-going age into schools.

Putting a supplementary question on the Minister’s reply, lawmaker Prem Suwal demanded an end to the practice of opening universities as per the government’s whim and fancy.

MP Tejulal Chaudhary wanted to know from Minister Pokharel how many students had passed the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) this time and with what grades.

Parliamentarian Somlal Pandey called for paying attention to science in school level education.

Responding to the MPs’ questions, Minister Pokharel declared that the tradition of opening universities on the basis of one’s access to political power and an investigation committee has been formed for looking into the SEE results this time. He added that educational transformation was still awaited in the country.

Minister for Education, Science and Technology Giriraj Mani Pokharel has inaugurated Maithili classes at four schools in Mahottari district.

Minister Pokharel inaugurated the teaching and learning in Maithili subject at Shree Madhyamik Vidyalaya Bakharibhath, Shree Jeevan Madhyam Basic School Ankar, Shree Rastriya Basic School Bela and Shree Nepal Rastriya Basic School Mahadevpatti, on Saturday.

On the occasion, Pokharel announced that Maithili education has been started in these schools. He also distributed the Maithili language school textbooks to the students at the four schools.

He said although the education in mother language, Maithili, has been started in the primary level at the four schools for now, it would be started in other levels as well.

All community and institutional schools at four local-level in Parsa district have been shut from today after students started suffering from different diseases due to scorching heat.

The community and institutional schools located at Birgunj Metropolitan City, Pokhariya municipality, Sakhuwa Prasauni rural municipality and Thori rural municipality have been closed at the direction of the local-level.

Schools of Birgunj Metropolitan City and Pokhariya municipality have been closed until June 17 while schools located at Sakhuwa Prasauni and Thori rural municipalities have been closed for five days from June 11.

Officer at Education section of Birgunj Metropolitan City Manjur Ansari said that the schools have been closed at the request of students as well as parents.

The schools have been closed after students started suffering from various diseases including vomiting, headache and dizziness due to rise in mercury in the district for the past few days.