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For the past two weeks, community school teachers and staff have been staging protests in Kathmandu, demanding the immediate enactment of the School Education Bill 2080. Their prolonged strike has affected the government's school enrolment campaign as well as the evaluation of answer sheets of the Secondary Education Examination (SEE). The national examination of Grade 12 also looks uncertain with the Nepal Teachers’ Federation instructing teachers to boycott  examination duties.

While the teachers have every right to demand professional growth and better service conditions, the prolonged standoff between the government and educators is harming the very foundation of Nepal’s education system. Teachers are on a stir because of the delay in passing the School Education Bill, which has been languishing in the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee of the House of Representatives. Although a sub-committee has been formed to consolidate suggestions from various stakeholders, the progress in the Bill has been far from satisfactory. The teachers appear in no mood to budge this time, citing repeated betrayals from the government in the past.

Had the government acted with urgency, the bill could have been passed during the winter session. The protesting teachers argue that the lack of decisive action has forced them to take the extreme measure of boycotting examinations—a move that could jeopardize the academic future of over 550,000 students. The consequences of this impasse are severe. With schools shut and admissions for the new academic session stalled, parents could turn to private institutions, which will further weaken the already struggling public education system. If public schools continue to fail due to systemic neglect and political indifference, the gap between privileged and underprivileged students will only widen.

The Bill, rooted in the six-point agreement reached in 2023, promises to align education with Nepal’s federal constitution, decentralize management and ensure equitable distribution of teachers. However, provisions of granting local governments control over teachers’ appointment and transfers have sparked fears of political interference and job insecurity. A solution to these concerns should be found at the earliest to facilitate the early passage of the Bill. The teachers’ body has proposed three solutions—a special parliamentary session, an ordinance or immediate convening of the budget session. The government has called the budget session of federal parliament for April 25, apparently a fortnight earlier this year, per officials, to facilitate the passage of the Bill.

Political leaders and major parties have shown little seriousness toward the demand of teachers, with some exploiting the protests for political gains. It is high time the political leadership realized that education reform is not just about teachers’ demands; it is about the future of hundreds of thousands of kids.

Nepal’s economy is showing signs of steady recovery and resilience, according to latest reports from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). While the outlook is positive, these institutions say the country still faces some serious hurdles that need to be addressed to maintain this momentum.

The World Bank’s Nepal Development Update (April 2025) has forecast economic growth of 4.5 percent for the current fiscal year, up from 3.9 percent last year. It expects average growth of 5.4 percent over the next two years. The World Bank has attributed this rise to improvements in the services sector, boosted by stronger domestic trade, rising imports and solid performance in hydropower and construction. The ADB’s Asian Development Outlook (April 2025) offers a similar but slightly lower estimate of 4.4 percent growth. It highlights increased hydropower production and better agricultural output—especially in paddy farming—as key drivers of the growth. Both institutions have said that Nepal has managed to bounce back well, despite challenges like natural disasters and travel disruptions caused by the upgrade of Tribhuvan International Airport.

The NRB’s latest report supports this optimistic view. Inflation has eased to 3.85 percent in mid-March of 2025, down from 4.82 percent a year before—well below the central bank’s target. Foreign exchange reserves are healthy, enough to cover more than 17 months of merchandise imports and 14 months of merchandise and services imports, while exports are up by 57.2 percent. These indicators suggest that the country’s economic fundamentals are becoming more stable.

The growth prospects, however, are not without risks. The World Bank has warned that global issues, such as political conflicts, rising prices, and heavy dependence on remittances and tourism, could affect Nepal’s growth. It also said the FATF greylisting has hampered Nepal’s efforts to access international capital markets after having a BB- country rating. The ADB added that ongoing tariff rises may cause a global economic downturn, affecting Nepal’s tourism receipts and remittances, and lower foreign aid could negatively impact growth as Nepal relies on foreign aid to finance development needs. 

The government must prioritize reforms and enhance its spending efficiency to maintain this momentum. Promoting private sector growth through clearer laws and regulations, bolstering the financial system, harnessing hydropower potential, and upgrading tourism infrastructure could generate employment opportunities and lessen dependence on remittances. Similarly, the government should act swiftly to implement the Financial Action Task Force’s recommendations to secure Nepal’s removal from the ‘gray list.’ Failure to address this could lead to severe repercussions.

Oftentimes, it appears that Nepal’s prolonged peace process is getting nowhere, that it has forgotten the victims of a decade-long war that left behind a trail of deaths, destruction and disappearances. After the cessation of hostilities between the then Maoist rebels and the government and signing of a comprehensive peace accord on 21 Nov 2006, much water has flown down the perennial rivers of Nepal. The period since then has witnessed developments like the entry of the Maoists into the mainstream politics, the declaration of the country as a federal secular democratic republic (28 May 2008), completion of the disarmament process of the Maoist army (2012) and the promulgation of a constitution through a Constituent Assembly (2015) in its second term.

These developments notwithstanding, transitional justice remains as a sticking point.

Why would it not? After all, according to estimates, more than 17,000 Nepalis died in the decade-long war, many sustained injuries, hundreds became victims of enforced disappearances and infrastructure worth billions of rupees vaporized, literally, pushing Nepal decades back in terms of development.

In the hearts of the victims and their relatives sits a fear. The victims fear that the leaders of the three major political parties—the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and the CPN(Maoist Center)—won’t bother to address their concerns, that the top brass will make a compromise to serve their petty interests and save their heads instead.

It is a given that no amount of ‘justice’ can bring a life back, no amount of ‘justice’ can heal the wounds of a war.

That fact aside, the victims have been demanding that there should be no amnesty in cases of heinous crimes like murder, rape and indiscriminate killings.

Against this backdrop, CPN (Maoist Center) Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, addressing an interaction on transitional justice in Kathmandu on Thursday, said there never was and will never be a disagreement among the three major parties on taking the remaining tasks of the peace process to a logical conclusion.

He stressed the need to give topmost priority when it comes to delivering justice to the victims, pointing out at the passage of the Truth and Reconciliation Bill and the formation of a recommendation committee for giving shape to a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

 Past assurances of justice for the victims have proved hollow, stressing a crying need to walk the talk, which may be easier said than done. The top political leadership would do well to not ignore the victims’ concerns. 

‘The consumer is the king of the market.’ 

The above quote seems to imply that the consumer holds (almost) tyrannical power over the market.

The quote gives consumer confidence a boost, but not for long against lived experiences, especially in less developed countries and monopoly markets like Nepal where the consumer has remained a paper tiger for long.  

The quote notwithstanding, the situation on the ground is far more sobering in the context of Nepal where consumerism remains an alien concept, where getting cheated in terms of price, quality and quantity has become the norm rather than the exception for the gullible consumer. Here, cartelling, hoarding and black-marketing have become standard business practices and even if one gets caught for resorting to these practices, chances of getting an early release are pretty high, thanks to friends in high places. 

In the name of protecting consumers’ interests, very many organizations have sprouted in Nepal over the decades. But most of these bodies are not independent; they merely are extensions of different political parties. Obviously, they are more interested in pursuing politics in the name of the consumer than taking pains for the protection of consumer rights. 

By the way, what does the Constitution of Nepal, 2015 provide for the (wronged) consumer? 

Article 44 (1) states, in no uncertain terms: Every consumer shall have the right to obtain quality goods and services. 

Article 44 (2) goes: A person who has suffered injury from any substandard goods or services shall have the right to obtain compensation in accordance with law. 

A fitting tribute to consumer rights, right? 

But the consumer needs far more than hollow words, it needs some concrete action to get core concerns addressed. 

For a long time, the conscious consumer has felt the need for a dedicated court to address grievances. The good news is, such a court has finally started operation coinciding with the World Consumer Rights Day (March 15).   

The Consumer Court, established with a mission to expedite legal proceedings and provide swift resolutions to consumer complaints, consists of Kathmandu district court Judge Ram Prasad Sharma as chair and gazetted second-class officers Gehendra Raj Regmi and Ananda Raj Pokharel as members, apart from a registrar for filing cases. 

Now that the long-awaited court has materialized, time has come for the aggrieved people to break the silence and move the court, if need be, for the protection of consumer rights.