The Nepal Teachers’ Union (NTU) has issued a 35-day ultimatum to the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) to fulfill its 16-point educational demands.

Submitting the memorandum to the Minister for Education and Sports Radha Krishna Mainali, the NTU has demanded that the government implement the agreement it reached with the NTU a year ago, or else the teachers’ body would launch further protest programmes.

The 16-point educational demands include providing free education to all students upto grade 8; free secondary education for women, dalits and disabled; and the establishment of a national and district level monitoring mechanism to monitor remunerations of the private and community school teachers.

Other demands are: providing full scholarships to the children of the teachers killed during the conflict, ensure safety of all the teachers, 25 percent reservation for lady teachers and adjustment of teachers’ salaries as per market inflation.

Reports quoted Keshab Prasad Bhattarai, president of the NTU, as saying that if the government did not pay heed to their memorandum within the next 35 days, they would have no choice but to announce further ‘decisive’ protest programmes.

Mohan Gyanwali, president of Nepal Teachers’ Association, said the government needed to join hands with the teachers as the latter’s demands were focused on increasing the quality of education.

Hira Prasad Nepali, president of Nepal National Teachers’ Union (NNTU), said that the teachers wanted to solve all problems related to the educational sector through dialogue. He, however, alleged that the government was bent on creating further unrest by arresting teachers.

In order to create awareness among the teachers and other stakeholders, the NTU will organise a rally from New Baneshwor on January 30 and hold an interaction programme on February 23 at the central level, while, at the district level, it will organise meetings and carry out various awareness programmes on February 14, the Union officials said.