Kathmandu, Aug 19 (IANS) Over 65,000 schools, thousands of colleges, universities and other educational institutions in Nepal were Sunday hit by an indefinite education shutdown called by Maoist students, who said the protest would continue till the government freed over 50 of their peers arrested last week.
Umesh Shrestha, president of Private and Boarding Schools of Nepal, an umbrella of private schools, said the closure had affected most educational institutions in Kathmandu valley that were to reopen Sunday.
There were also reports of Maoist students forcibly closing down institutions that had tried to defy the shutdown.
Though the indefinite education strike was called from Saturday, it had no immediate effect, Saturday being a holiday.
The indefinite stir, Shrestha warned, would have a dismal impact on the ongoing School-Leaving Certificate examination, which nearly 117,000 students are taking.
Though Sports and Education Minister Pradeep Nepal appealed to the rebel students to call off their protest, saying it would hamper the crucial election to be held November, the plea fell on deaf ears.
Himal Sharma, general secretary of the Maoist student union, said the indefinite education closure would continue till the government unconditionally freed the 54 activists arrested earlier this week.
The Maoist supporters were arrested after they went on a rampage and clashed with a rival student union loyal to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s Nepali Congress party.
The crisis was triggered by clashes between Maoist students and Nepal Students’ Union last week, leading to a partial transport shutdown called by the Maoists in Kathmandu Wednesday.
The situation worsened after Maoist supporters attacked an MP’s car during the closure, causing uproar in Nepal’s parliament.
Senior members of the eight ruling parties held a meeting Saturday, but failed to address the student crisis due to continued bickering.
The meeting, held after over two months, ended inconclusively, like most of the previous meetings, after the feud between Koirala and the Maoists continued over the issue of King Gyanendra.
The Maoists are demanding that Nepal’s 238-year-old monarchy be abolished through a parliamentary proclamation before the Nov 22 election.
They say free and fair polls would be impossible as long as the king remains and have been accusing the palace of stirring trouble in the Terai plains to sabotage the polls.
Koirala, who had been advocating a ceremonial king without actual powers, is refusing to concede the demand on the ground that the rebels had agreed to let the constituent assembly election determine the king’s fate.