Colleges with foreign names on NSU target

KATHMANDU, JUL 08 -

In what appears to be a publicity stunt, the Nepali Congress student wing, Nepal Student Union (NSU), has started removing hoarding boards of private higher secondary schools with foreign names. Colleges have taken serious exception to the move.

NSU has said the “gaudy” hoarding boards are being taken away as they simply glamourise the academic sector. The union says it resorted to this move, as higher secondary schools turned down its request to get rid of foreign names.

Earlier, NSU had submitted a memorandum, with a Friday ultimatum, to the Ministry of Education, the Higher Secondary Schools’ Association of Nepal, the Private and Boarding Schools Association of Nepal and other concerned stakeholders, urging them to remove hoarding boards of those Plus Two schools with foreign names. “We were compelled take the lead in removing billboards of colleges with foreign names as the concerned authorities and the Plus Two colleges failed to heed our call,” said NSU coordinator Ranjeet Karna.

Karna claimed that establishing educational institutions with foreign names was against the national interest and against the Education Act. Though there are over a dozen colleges with foreign names, NSU only targeted a half dozen of them. “We have taken the initiative but it is the government’s job to complete the task,” said Karna.

Meanwhile, college owners have flayed the NSU’s act, saying that no one has the right to pull down hoarding boards of colleges and schools that had been legally registered with the government. “This is simply ridiculous. I don’t understand who authorised the union to do such illegal activities,” said SP Singh, chief executive officer of Pentagon College.

Meanwhile, a taskforce formed to develop policies of admission, fee structures and advertising has recommended that the Higher Secondary Education Board direct all Plus Two colleges to take down their hoarding boards within a week.

Source: http://www.ekantipur.com/2012/07/08/capital/colleges-with-foreign-names-on-nsu-target/356781/