NEPAL'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM DEVASTATED BY MAOISTS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 002442

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FINANCING
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E.O 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER PHUM SOCI PGOV NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM DEVASTATED BY MAOISTS

REF: (A) KATHMANDU 2307

(B) KATHMANDU 2151
(C) KATHMANDU 2228
(D) KATHMANDU 2280
(E) KATHMANDU 2346
(F) KATHMANDU 657


1. Summary: The Nepali education system has suffered
tremendously in the country's nearly seven years of ongoing
Maoist insurgency. Private schools have been shut down by
the insurgents and teachers afraid of Maoist violence have
abandoned their posts. Public schools that are open often
are crowded far beyond their capacity. Students have
reported that they are afraid to stay in school for fear of
being forcibly recruited into the Maoist ranks. Educational
strikes, violence against teachers, attacks on school
property and fear of getting caught in the middle of clashes
between government and Maoist forces have terrified children
trying to concentrate on their studies. Overcrowded
classrooms have seriously compromised the quality of
education. End summary.

SCHOOLS CLOSED AND TEACHERS DISPLACED
--------------


2. Since the beginning of Nepal's Maoist insurgency in 1996,
at least 700 private schools have been forcibly closed,
according to estimates by the Private and Boarding School
Organization of Nepal (PABSON). President of the
association Rajesh Khadka has stated that in 25 districts,
the insurgency has forced all private schools to close their
doors.


3. Sources at the Department of Education (DOE) say that
they have yet to complete a comprehensive assessment of the
effect of the insurgency on public schools, but estimate
that 3,000 teachers have been displaced by the Maoists,
beaten or killed. The DOE estimates that 100,000 students
are unable to attend school as a result.


4. Human rights organizations and interest groups cite
figures that are considerably higher. According to the
Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC),a human rights NGO,
2,000 schools have been closed down nationwide, and 60,000
children are unable to attend school in Surkhet district
alone. The Nepal Teachers' Organization asserts that many
teachers in outlying areas have moved to district
headquarters, while a number of others have been detained by
security forces or the Maoists.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS: OVERCROWDED, POORLY FUNDED
--------------


5. As private schools are shut down by the insurgency,
students are forced to move to already overburdened public
schools. Overcrowding in rural areas has reached crisis
levels, with teacher to student ratios reaching 1:100 in
some districts. "And that's if all of the teachers show
up," say analysts at World Education, an NGO monitoring the
insurgency's impact on education. "If teachers have been
displaced or simply don't come to school, there are even
more students in a single classroom. There is nowhere for
them to sit, no supplies for them to use, or sometimes no
teachers at all."


6. Overcrowding has denied access to public schools for the
poorest and most disadvantaged children in some areas.
According to World Education, the press of students has led
some government schools to enforce more strictly their
documentary requirements for entry, in order to reduce
enrollment. Students who cannot provide birth certificates,
proof of citizenship or other evidence that they are
entitled to public school education are simply turned back
at the door. Typically, students who are from poor families
or who have been displaced from their homes are less likely
to possess the required documents than the students who have
moved from private schools.


7. Public schools in Maoist-affected areas also are
suffering from a lack of funds for school management and
maintenance, as neither the government nor the Maoists
provide for schools' financial needs. The schools visited
by an NGO assessment team in August lacked sanitation
facilities, water, furniture, books and supplies. The same
NGO found that in western Kailali district, if teachers try
to raise funds through donations from parents, they are
harassed by Maoists who see the donations as a fee. Yet if
the teachers ask the Maoists themselves for funds, the
insurgents reply that their aim is not to solve problems but
to create them to aid the insurgency.

VIOLENCE AGAINST STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
--------------


8. If social unrest and conflict are beneficial to the
Maoist cause, the insurgents have spared no effort in
pursuing their aims in the schools of Nepal. Bomb attacks
on school premises, violence against teachers and forced
recruitment of students have made benefits of education less
important to many children and parents than day-to-day
security. Both sides of the conflict use school buildings as
shelters, and both sides have interrogated students on
school grounds.


9. Students in southern Siraha district, for example, were
terrorized by skirmishes between Maoists and government
forces that took place inside their high school, during
school hours. The school was closed for ten days, and
students are still frightened to attend classes.


10. Children from rural areas have told NGO workers that
they are afraid to walk to school for fear of being caught
in the crossfire between government forces and Maoists.
Post has reported several incidents in which children
walking to school were killed or injured by Maoist bombs
(refs B-D). Even simple facts of life have become serious
threats for rural children--particularly girls--thanks to
the Maoist practice of placing landmines and bombs in the
brush near school buildings. Most of the schools in the
hills have no toilets, and those that do usually have
facilities only for the boys. When children walk away from
the building and into the bushes, they encounter Maoist
bombs.


11. As children cope with an environment of fear and
uncertainty, child welfare officers report that students'
attention spans have shortened, they have become more easily
distracted, and they pay less attention to their studies.
Available statistics demonstrate that last year's school
results in the rural districts were poor. In Dipayal,
capital of Doti district, 17 of the 25 primary schools
failed to have a single student pass the final exam. Only
14 students in the district scored higher than the passing
grade of 32 percent. In northern Humla, the situation was
even worse: only four students in the entire district passed
their exams last year.


12. Violence and threats against teachers have been
widespread, and many have fled their posts. In eastern
Bhojpur, for example, approximately 500 students were
affected when four teachers failed to return to one
secondary school after the Dasain holidays. The students
were unable to complete their math, English, economics or
science courses in time for annual examinations. In
Melamchi, central Sindhupalchowk district, students boarded
over the doors to their own secondary school building after
all of the teachers, fearing Maoist attacks, abandoned their
positions.

EDUCATION STRIKES
--------------


13. Not only rural students are affected. Maoist insurgents
this month declared an "indefinite educational strike"
throughout the Kathmandu Valley (ref E),closing an
estimated 5,000 schools and affecting over 500,000 students.
A nationwide two-day educational strike took place
concurrently, on December 11 and 12. Though educational
organizations in the Valley had initially stated their
intention to observe the strike, or "bandh," for only five
days, Maoist violence against schools defying the bandh in
other areas of the country led the groups to recant.
General observance of the strike has been extended until
December 22.


14. The Maoists have declared nationwide strikes throughout
the past year, almost always to the detriment of education,
and at least one seems to have been deliberately timed to
disrupt student schedules. In April, widespread public
discontent with a strike slated for the same dates as
national secondary school exams led Maoists to postpone the
bandh until later in the month (ref F). Despite vocal
public protest of this month's indefinite strike, however,
the Maoists have refused to compromise.

CHILD LABOR, HEALTH, NUTRITION AFFECTED
--------------


15. The effects of the ongoing insurgency on education are
insidious. Children who have lost parents in the insurgency
are more likely to have to work to support their families,
and therefore forgo their education. Students with no
access to health care are more likely to miss school as a
result of illness. In Rukum, security concerns have put an
end to a seven-year-old UNFP program that delivered nutrient-
enriched meals to 13,000 primary school students free of
cost. Food stopped reaching schools in September, when
security forces, suspecting that the supplies were being
used by Maoists, put an embargo on distribution. Attendance
has steadily tapered off since the schools have stopped
distributing free meals. One primary school reported a drop
from 220 students to 120 in the last three months.

COMMENT
--------------


16. Maoist claims of being pro-education are becoming more
ridiculous by the day as regional strikes and nationwide
warfare continue to deprive students of the chance to go to
school and the right to security. Progress in combating
child labor, increases in literacy and school attendance and
other gains in the fight for education of Nepali children
are sliding backwards in the face of the Maoist onslaught.
Though political parties, NGOs and many donor countries have
remained relatively silent on the issue until now, the
recently declared educational strike in Kathmandu has
sparked some public outcry and a call by human rights groups
for the government and the insurgents to declare schools as
"safe havens" or "peace zones." But though the GON may be
spurred out of its inertia by public protests, it remains to
be seen whether the Maoists will back down from their
intransigent demands and to let Nepal's children get back to
the business of education.

MALINOWSKI