Academic institutions all over the country are closing down indefinitely starting Monday for fear of being attacked by Maoist students who have been pressing the government for the fulfillment of their demands.
The government did come up with a 29-point programme to revamp the education sector Friday, which has accommodated some of the demands of the Maoists. The All Nepal National Free Students Union (Revolutionary) has been stating that it would withdraw from the strike if the government revoked its earlier decision of identifying the Maoists as terrorists.
In a press release issued Saturday the Maoist student body said the 29-point programme had only deceived the people and had not fulfilled their genuine demands.
The Private and Boarding School Organisation of Nepal (PABSON) has also appealed to all its representative bodies to close down for five days starting Monday until the government and the Maoist student body succeed to address the problem through the holding of talks.
The Maoist student body has put up different demands such as the need to put an end to the commercialization and privatization of education, need to curtail the security budget by 75 per cent and divert the fund for the development of education, need to resume vocational and practical training,
need to put an end to the arrest and torturing of teachers, need to develop infrastructure of the Tribhuvan University apart from providing additional budget and need to scrap the provision of compulsory Sanskrit education.