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Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal emphasized on the importance of collective action in tackling global challenges through peaceful means and diplomatic dialogue.

Addressing the UN General Assembly on Thursday, he highlighted Nepal’s unique position as regards climate change, saying that even with low emissions, vast forested areas that help preserve biodiversity, Nepal “suffers unfairly from climate crisis.”

“This kind of mismatch must be addressed,” the Prime Minister said, urging a mechanism to compensate countries making a positive difference in greening the planet.

“On our part, Nepal remains fully committed to the Paris Agreement and achieving its goals, having set an ambitious target of reaching a net-zero scenario by 2045,” he added.

Reshaping global governance and reforming multilateral institutions was overdue, Prime Minister Dahal said, urging meaningful engagement and representation of least developed, landlocked developing, and small island developing nations in the process.

“Only a more inclusive, fair and representative international financial architecture can be an antidote to the deep-rooted inequities and gaps,” he added.

The Prime Minister also advocated for the reform of the UN Security Council, emphasizing the need for representation, transparency, and accountability. He urged revitalizing the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council, granting them greater roles.

Prime Minister Dahal said that currently as the Prime Minister and a co-signatory of the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Accord, which ended the armed conflict, he has been making “serious efforts” to build consensus and complete the task of transitional justice and conclude Nepal’s home-grown peace process.

In the transitional justice process, “there will be no blanket amnesty for serious violations of human rights,” he affirmed, adding: “The ultimate objective is to establish an enduring peace in the country and foster harmony in society through peace, justice, and reconciliation.”

He went on to note that Nepal is focused on sustaining socio-economic growth and development, and that it will be graduating from the status of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) by 2026.

“We are in the process of finalizing the smooth graduation strategy,” he said, highlighting that Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) form the center of Nepal’s development vision and priorities.

PM Dahal urged greater international support through development and technical assistance, as well as foreign direct investment to overcome shocks induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and geo-political tensions.

The Nepali leader called for the shift in the current trajectory of global affairs, away from geopolitical competition, power polarization, and economic nationalism. Instead, he urged the international community to refocus on shared objectives of peace, prosperity, and progress.

“It is time to build trust, promote partnership and collaboration, and work in solidarity when the world is facing the challenges of unprecedented scale and nature,” he said.

Source: UN

That teachers of government schools are not happy with the Education Bill presented in the Parliament for discussions has become common knowledge in this day and age of information and communications technology.

Even sections of the public unaware of the Nepal Teachers’ Federation’s boycott of the meeting called by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to discuss the former’s concerns are now aware, most probably, of the Kathmandu-centric protest.

With around 15,000 teachers from across the country descending on the roads of Kathmandu as part of their protest to press for the fulfillment of their demands, teaching-learning activities have come to a halt in schools, affecting a large number of children.

The impact is not limited to the classroom, though. The daily demonstrations from teachers have caused inconveniences galore to the hapless masses. Traffic congestions in the already clogged arteries of Kathmandu have become the norm rather than the exception, causing immense difficulties to hundreds of thousands of road users, including motorists, pedestrians, cyclists and bikers. Traffic police personnel never had it easy; the protest has made their job more difficult.

What has ‘made’ the teachers slam the classroom door on the student and hit the streets, thereby causing traffic jams in the federal capital? Per the federation, the bill has failed to address issues like job security of temporary teachers, creation of non-teaching staff positions, concerns of pre-school teachers, promotion of teachers, appointment of the principal, transfer of teachers as well as performance appraisal. The bill’s provision on empowering local governments to evaluate and transfer teachers has also not gone well with the federation.

This does not mean that the teachers have no right to exercise a horde of rights, including collective bargaining, a fundamental right, an internationally-accepted practice and an important means through which employers and their organizations and trade unions can ensure fair wages and working conditions. Collective bargaining covers issues like wages, working time, training, occupational health and safety and equal treatment. The objective of negotiations is to arrive at a collective agreement that regulates terms and conditions of employment. 

But then democracy is not a one-way road. While exercising their right, one should not trample on others’ rights and this applies to the teachers too. Our society has high regards for teachers, it takes the teacher (Guru) as the remover of darkness (ignorance), it takes them as the guiding light. The teachers should have also respected the rights of other sections of the society, including the children’s right to education, while exercising their rights. 

Without causing further inconveniences to the public, the government and the federation should hold talks and reach a negotiated settlement. The onus is on both sides to soften their respective stances for the greater good of Nepal’s education sector, which also includes children, who symbolize a bright future of this country.

Nepal Teachers’ Federation launched a Kathmandu-centric protest on Wednesday against the Education Bill tabled in the Federal Parliament, with around 15,000 teachers of government schools hitting the streets by disrupting teaching-learning activities as well as road traffic in Kathmandu in their bid to ‘teach’ some lesson to the government and the Parliament about the possible consequences of ignoring their demands.  

Per the federation, the bill has failed to address issues like job security of temporary teachers, creation of non-teaching staff positions, concerns of pre-school teachers, promotion of teachers, appointment of the principal, transfer of teachers as well as performance appraisal. The bill’s provision on empowering local units to evaluate and transfer teachers has also not gone well with the federation, which earlier boycotted a meeting that the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology had called.

The protesting teachers gathered at Maitighar Mandala and marched to Baneshwor Chowk, causing traffic congestions along various stretches, including the Maitighar-Baneshwor-Tinkune-Koteshwor section, and forcing traffic police personnel to reroute traffic.  

Meanwhile, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City has urged teachers not to disrupt teaching-learning activities. In a notice, KMC stated that the teachers’ act of depriving children of education so as to press for the fulfillment of their demands is not acceptable.

The school is a zone of peace and school closure a violation of the law, it said, calling teachers not to shut schools but to opt for some other forms of protest to raise their concerns related to professional development.

If a school within the Kathmandu Metropolitan City is closed or forced to close or if it is found that the children’s right to education has been violated by closing educational institutions, stern legal action will be taken and the concerned individual will be held fully responsible, the KMC warned.

KMC Spokesperson Nabin Manandhar said they have urged teachers to resume classes from tomorrow. “The students’ right to education should not be violated by closing schools,” he said. 

The recent G7 foreign ministers’ meeting urged China to force Russia to end its war with Ukraine.  Neither China nor the US can handle the international crisis on its own. If China can play a role in ending this war, it can also play a role in the creation of a new global order not acceptable to the west.

Together, the US and China can play a role in tackling global crises, including the Russia-Ukraine war, using three measures—formation of ‘G2’ by adopting a 4Cs approach (consultation, communication, coordination and cooperation); G2 mediation between Russia and Ukraine for ending the conflict and leading the world and transformation of G7 into G10 by bringing China, India and Russia on board by securing Russia’s commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty. These measures reflecting a “new economic and political reality”can help create a new global order, apart from achieving ‘win-win results’ through fair competition.

The author is geopolitical analyst