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By Our Reporter

The school teachers from across the country have been demonstrating in Kathmandu for the last 29 days demanding the enactment of the School Education Bill and implementation of the past agreements.

 Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli initially tried to ignore their protest and criticised them from public forums, which prompted teachers to make their protest more powerful. 

When thousands of teachers were marching peacefully from Maitighar to New Baneshwor every day, PM Oli was saying that the teachers who were failing 52 per cent of students had no right to put forth demands. But his intolerable and egoistic attitudes backfired. He drew criticism not only from the opposition parties but also from ruling coalition partners. When Nepali Congress general secretaries Gagan Kumar Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma and leader Shekhar Koirala criticised the government for not responding to the agitating teachers and when Education Minister Bidhya Bhattarai resigned, speculations were high that the Oli-led government may collapse.

Together with teachers, other groups including medical doctors and pro-royalist groups were also in the streets, but PM Oli was trying to suppress them. But when the base of the coalition government began shaking because of his egoistic attitudes towards teachers, PM Oli-led government finally initiated talks.  The situation worsened when the police and agitating teachers clashed on the 25th day of their demonstration. The government drew further criticism after the use of power in peaceful demonstrations. Finally, when Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba returned to Nepal from Bangkok and assured Oli of the continuation of the present coalition, the government started holding dialogues with the government by appointing Raghuji Panta as the new Education Minister.

Though the talks on Monday and Tuesday failed to conclude, both the government and representatives of the Nepal Teachers' Federation said that the talks would conclude by Wednesday.

Because of the lengthy protest of teachers, the school enrollment campaign, final examinations of grade 12 and the evaluation of SEE answer sheets were affected.

Had PM Oli taken the protest seriously at the beginning, the protest would not have lasted for a month. This is an example of how Oli often tends to feel hurt when any group challenges him and tries his best to suppress them, which often turns counterproductive.

When the teachers were protesting for the 28th day, the government, however, addressed the demands of the medical doctors who were also in the streets demanding a hike in pay for the residential doctors of private hospitals.

The Medical Education Commission on Monday decided that private medical colleges must provide the increased stipend to residents from the date of the decision. It has also instructed resident doctors to withdraw their protest and return to their work and studies.

The 19th meeting of the commission held on Monday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli made the decision.

Earlier, the 16th meeting of the Commission held on February 7 had decided that private medical colleges must provide a monthly stipend of Rs. 48,737 to postgraduate (PG) resident doctors, equal to that provided by government institutions.