While the Ministry of Home states that 51 districts have remained in a state of unrest in one way or another for the last three weeks, schools have remained closed in the affected regions as the protests have turned violent.A total of 42 days of the academic calendar have been affected following 26 days of closure after the April 25 earthquake and 12 days due to protests.
While the schools, declared a zone of peace four years ago under a written commitment from the political leaders, move towards indefinite closure, the government has expressed helplessness in finding a way out.
"The district education officers have not been able to reach their offices and persuade the protestors to allow school resumptions," said Dilli Ram Rimal, director general at the Department of Education (DoE). He added that the protests were too political to be tackled from the bureaucratic level.
Reports from the districts suggest that protestors demanding federal provinces or undivided regions are targeting government offices to replace the sign boards, and this has aggravated tensions.
According to the Private and Boarding Schools Organization Nepal (PABSON), schools were opened from Sunday at the initiative of the PABSON central committee, which reached Banke, Dang and Tikapur.
"In Dang, the schools were forced to shut the same day by another protesting group " said Rajendra Baniya, acting general secretary of PABSON, the umbrella organization of private and boarding schools.
Schools from Kailali to Nepalgunj area shut automatically following the violent clash that left seven security personnel and a two-year-old dead.
Meanwhile in Rukum and Dailekh, schools opened from Tuesday after 12 days of continuous closure.
In the central tarai, schools are clueless how to deal with the agitating groups. "The schools have no option but to wait for the agitators to call off their protests," said Baniya.
The Nepal bandha called by Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities on Sunday and Monday affected vehicular movement and businesses in the capital only partially, but the academic sector was completely shut. Similar was the situation during the two-day bandha called by the CPN-Maoist two weeks ago. This alone affected around one million students at Valley schools.
"It is the height of insensitivity on the part of the government and civil society for everyone to be fighting for their rights while no one seems to be concerned about the future of the upcoming generation," said educationist Kedar Bhakta Mathema.
He criticized the stakeholders, including the government, student unions and the guardians, for not raising concern over the school closures till now.
Meanwhile, DoE Director Khagendra Nepal told Republica that his office was soon going to make an official appeal to the political parties to ensure that schools and colleges are treated as a zone of peace.
Schools unlikely to complete academic courses this session
Academic courses are most unlikely to be incomplete this academic session, because of the unscheduled hindrances.
"We had revised the calendar and minimized it to 220 days after the earthquake, but now we hereby declare that courses cannot be completed this year," said Baniya on behalf of private schools. Public schools face a similar fate if they do not call the students to class during public holidays to make up for lost time
The nasty turn in national politics indicates that more strikes are in the offing and one doubts if schools can run for even 180 days till April, he stated.
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