The Office of the Controller of Examinations of Tribhuwan University on Tuesday published the results of Proficiency Certificate Level (second year), a press statement stated. The results of the academic programmes have come within the given deadline. The examinations were conducted about three months ago.

Students, student unions and private educational institutions came down heavily on the government for its bid to impose 5 per cent education cess. The existing education system also came under attack. Speaking at an interaction organized by the PU chapter of the All Nepal National Free Students’ Union (ANNFSU), Basanta Chandra Marahathha, principal, ACME Engineering College, said the government had erred by trying to impose 5 per cent as service tax at a time when it had been levying 25 per cent tax on all institutions operating under the Company Act. “The additional tax is in violation of norms of taxation.”
The ACME principal claimed that the tax on private educational institutions adds up to 40 per cent.
“The Company Act governs the taxation of beer and cigarette factories. How can the government treat educational institutions on a par with these factories? How can subject excessive taxes on the institutes, which have been working to safeguard the right to education, one of the fundamental rights?” Marahathha questioned.
He said the government move would force private institutions to close.
Marahathha said the PU’s act of not issuing original certificates to its graduates was coming in the way of the graduates’ attempts to enroll at other universities. “In the absence of original certificates, other universities have not granted validations to their degrees.”
Bidur Chalise, principal, Stupa College, said the PU lacked an academic calendar. “The university lacks registrar and faculty deans and subject committees have not met for four years.”
“Interestingly, basic science faculties handle Health Science programmes,” said Chalise. “He accused the PU of granting affiliations to colleges without considering their infrastructure and capabilities. In course of three years, the number of PU-affiliated health science colleges has reached 20. “Entrance test has not yet been held for the summer intake. The colleges have been taking loans to pay their staff,” said he. “The government should either regulate universities or shut them.”
Dr Ram Kumar Adhikari of the Man Mohan Memorial Institute said the state cannot eliminate privatisation in education. “If the education sector is nationalised, the government will have to provide education services, which private institutions have been providing.”
Another representative of the institution institute lamented that they had requested the Medical Council to inspect their establishment a year ago, to no avail. “A year later, the council writes to us, saying that we cannot run the programme, which is already underway” said he.
Ram Kumari Jhankri, president, ANNFSU, said the union was setting up a parallel student body in the PU. “We will dig PU to its roots and correct it,” said she. She also blamed the private institutions for promoting brain drain by selling false hopes of study programmes in foreign universities. She also came down heavily on the CTEVT, accusing it of alluring students with academic degrees for training courses.
Bhupendra Jang Shahi, vice-president, Nepal Students’ Union, said the government’s move to collect 5 per cent service tax on education was a wrong one. “The government should provide grants to all the institutions so that the poor also have access to private institutions,” said he.
It may be noted that the government can collect Rs 50 million in service taxes from private
engineering institutions alone if the new taxation scheme comes into effect.

The Supreme Court ruled that it would take a decision on Sunday whether to issue a stay order or not against the Education Service Tax imposed by the government on private schools. After an initial hearing on the case, a single bench of Justice Gauri Dhakal ruled that the decision on stay order would be taken on Sunday. The bench directed the defendants — Ministry of Education and Inland Revenue Department —to be present in the hearing on Sunday and also told them to clarify why a stay order should not be issued against the tax provision.

During today's hearing senior advocates Sindhu Nath Pyakurel, Harihar Dahal and advocates Balkrishna Neupane, Bal Mukunda Shrestha, Bikal Prajapati sought the court's intervention to scrap the tax provision. The government had introduced the tax through this year's budget. Saroj Raj Gosai of the Institutional Schools' Association of Nepal had moved the court against the tax provision.

Various organizations concerning teachers jointly called a nationwide closure of academic institutions on Sunday protesting against the killing of a teacher of Rautahat district. The teachers have demanded to take action against the guilty and to declare academic institutions ‘peace zone. Sunil Kumar Yadav, a resident of Dharahari VDC-9 of the Rautahat district, was shot dead by an unidentified group on October 22.

The Institutional Schools' Association Nepal (ISAN) today submitted a seven-point memorandum to the Ministry of Education, demanding the government to roll back the decision to impose five per cent education service tax (EST) on schools.

The ISAN said that the provision of education service tax was against the 'Education For All' slogan of the government and Interim Constitution-2006, which advocates free education as the fundamental right of all Nepali citizens.” By introducing EST, the government is legalizing the commercialization of education sector, which means that the government is trying to escape from its responsibility of providing education to its citizens," the memorandum stated.
It also noted that the implementation of EST would lead to the closure of schools that have been imparting education to many students.

"The decision to impose the tax on the private sector, which is providing education to more than fifteen lakhs students and employing some 1.5 lakh teachers without any government investment, cannot be justified," the memorandum stated.
The institutional schools’ association also objected the government decision to compel the institutional schools to pay tax in the middle of the academic session.
It has also urged the government to provide grants for the institutional schools, equal to that of the government's investment on each student in the government schools, to make education free of cost and maintain quality of education.

The CPN-Maoist affiliated student wing All Nepal National Independent Students Union- Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) Monday clashed with the students union affiliated to the CPN- UML in Pokhara following a dispute over the selection of the principal at the National Higher Secondary School.

The clash ensued after the ANNISU-R broke down the padlock carried out by ANNFSU at the school.

Students from both sides have been injured in the clash.

Earlier, ANNFSU students had padlocked the school on Saturday protesting against the selection of the principal under Maoists pressure.

With a three-day book fair being held at The Shanker Hotel, all the book lovers of kathmandu also have a chance to help a cause. The ‘Festivals of Books’, which was inaugurated on September 19 by Susan Gold mark, country Director, The World Bank, is supporting various grass root level community based organizations situated in rural parts of Nepal and working against human trafficking.

The fair includes a huge collection of books related to various issues. Form architectural designs to world history from cookery to classics, there is something for both the casual readers as well as those looking for books of a specific study.

Gold mark, whose husband is a writer, has a special affection towards books. “This is a wonderful event and I am someone who loves to be around books. Over here I saw an interesting selection of books”. On the issue of human trafficking she said, “This is an important step towards recognizing this problem, and in New Nepal we hope that things like women trafficking will not be tolerated.”