House committee passes School Education Bill despite opposition reservations

KATHMANDU: The Education, Health and Information Technology Committee of the House of Representatives has endorsed the School Education Bill, 2080.

The committee meeting held at Singha Durbar on Thursday passed the bill following deliberations on its report. Lawmakers from the Maoist Centre, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) recorded dissenting opinions on certain provisions.

Maoist lawmakers argued that currently serving Early Childhood Development (ECD) assistants should be granted a one-time opportunity to compete in teacher recruitment without age restrictions. They also called for residential and clothing support for students from martyr, disappeared, injured and impoverished families, with the government bearing full responsibility.

Committee Chair Ammar Bahadur Thapa said lawmakers Devendra Paudel, Rekha Sharma, Mahindra Raya Yadav, Gyanu Basnet, Sumana Shrestha and Bina Jaiswal expressed dissenting views concerning ECD and scholarship provisions.

He added that the committee secretariat was instructed to harmonize language with the provisions accepted by the ministry, and the report will be tabled at the next parliamentary meeting.