The school education bill is getting trickier for a number of conflicting revisions proposed to the bill under discussion at a House committee.

At a discussion on the bill on Thursday, the representatives of local governments suggested revisions to 37 points of the bill. In their common stand, the Municipal Association of Nepal and the National Association of Rural Municipalities in Nepal have demanded provisions authorising local governments to issue laws and policies on school education, and on preparation and implementation of local curricula and textbooks.

The authority to prepare and execute academic plans, school budgets, and management of school teachers are other demands of local governments. They also want permission to set up new schools and say increasing or decreasing their level should come under their jurisdiction.

They also demanded the right to perform teacher evaluations, teacher appointments based on the recommendation of the Teacher Service Commission, and to hire contract teachers on their own.

“Local governments have the constitutional authority to manage teachers,” said Bhim Dhungana, chairperson of the Municipal Association, Nepal. “Our demand is not based on whim. It is in line with the Constitution of Nepal.”

The demands of the local governments contradict those of the government teachers.

The representatives of the Teachers’ Federation Nepal said on Wednesday that they don’t want to work under the local governments as they are biased against teachers on partisan grounds. They had presented 61 points of concern in the bill.

Against the provision in the bill that allows local units to recruit, evaluate, transfer and demote or promote teachers, the federation wants those powers to rest with the provinces. It had even held a Kathmandu-centric protest against various provisions in the bill, which ended with an agreement with the government. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has agreed to keep teachers to be managed by the provinces.

Putting their concerns before the House committee, the teachers' representatives had said they will have no job security if they come under the local units.

In addition to several concerns from the stakeholders, the bill under discussion in the Education and Health and Information Technology Committee of the House of Representatives has attracted amendments from 152 lawmakers. The local governments have even objected to the name of the bill, arguing the federal government must promulgate the federal education Act while the respective local units will prepare their own education laws.

Owing to the conflicting criticisms that the bill has attracted, Dr Toshima Karki, a Rastriya Swatantra Party lawmaker on the committee, had said that amendments alone would not resolve the contentious issues and that the bill needed to be rewritten.

The bill gives local units full authority to establish and operate schools. They, however, will have to put together the resources to manage and operate them. The authority to decide on school mergers, upgrades, downgrades and relocation will also be with local units. On the one hand, the bill empowers local units as envisioned in the constitution, but it also stands to reinstate the district education offices.

The 2015 constitution institutionalised federalism and ended the existence of districts as administrative units. With it, the education offices were reduced to education units.

If the bill gets endorsed, the national-level board exams will be conducted only at the end of grade 12. It is silent on the Secondary Education Examinations that are held at the end of grade 10, which means respective schools will conduct the tests. The National Examination Board will hold grade 12 tests across the country.

The local units will conduct grade 8 tests. However, education offices in the respective districts will prepare question sets for compulsory subjects; the local units will prepare questions only for optional subjects. The local governments are against such district-level units.

Officials in the House panel say they will hold discussions and negotiations to find meeting points. The committee will engage stakeholders before starting negotiations to streamline the amendments, they say.

“Discussions with the concerned stakeholders are ongoing,” Nirmala Devi Lamichhane Wasti, secretary of the committee, told the Post. “After that, the committee will enter into discussions over the amendments.”

(This article was first published by The Kathmandu Post, Nepal).