Nepal's education minister resigns amid growing rift with PM Oli, pending teachers' demand

Kathmandu(The Uttam Hindu): Nepal's Education Minister Bidya Bhattarai resigned following the differences she has with Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel over protesting teachers' demands on perks and benefits. Her decision came amid growing political differences with the Prime Minister and Finance Minister as thousands of government school teachers continued with their protest in Kathmandu, demanding passage of the School Education Bill, according to local media reports.

Meanwhile, Laxmi Kishor Subedi, chairman of the Confederation of Nepalese Teachers (CNT), took to social media and said that their agitation will continue on Tuesday. "Our agitation will continue," said Subedi. According to media reports earlier on Monday, Bhattarai held a meeting with Prime Minister Oli. She submitted her resignation to the Prime Minister during the meeting, as confirmed by the education ministry.

"She is unhappy with both Prime Minister Oli and Finance Minister Paudel, but efforts are on to convince her to rethink her resignation. The Prime Minister will talk to her," the leading Nepali newspaper, The Kathmandu Post, reported, quoting a minister as saying. The report quoted two sources close to the Education Minister, stating that PM Oli and Bhattarai had big differences over addressing the demands of the agitating teachers since teachers hit the streets.

"Finance Minister Paudel also did not cooperate in fulfilling some of the teachers' demands. Bhattarai mentioned 'health issues' as the reason for her resignation to the Prime Minister. Yes, she had been unwell sometime back, but now she has fully recovered," said the source. "If the government addresses teachers' demands related to salary and other perks and benefits, thousands of civil servants who are ready to hit the streets will ask for similar benefits. So both the Prime Minister and Finance Minister did not agree to address all the demands of the teachers, which made her resign," said an official familiar with the talks between Oli, Paudel, and Bhattarai.

The differences became prominent when the outgoing education minister Bhattarai, was absent during Prime Minister Oli's meeting with office-bearers of the CNT on Friday to explore solutions to the ongoing teachers' agitation centered in Kathmandu. The teacher's demonstrations and sit-ins in the Maitighar-Naya Baneshwor area of Kathmandu since April 2 have severely disrupted the national enrollment drive and delayed key academic tasks, such as evaluating answer sheets from the recently held Secondary Education Examination (SEE).

The teachers defied the government's instruction to begin student enrollment for the new academic year in Nepal, which started on April 15.