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Schools in Nepal on Sunday demanded the government open up physical classes that were shut down for weeks as the number of COVID-19 cases began to decline, Associated Press reported.

Teachers say online education was limited to only a small part of the population living in the urban parts of the Himalayan country while a majority of students were being deprived of their chance to learn.

The number of coronavirus cases fueled by the omicron variant has peaked in the past weeks but was declining in the last few days.

“We are ready to open the schools, students are eager to get back, guardians are willing to send their children and the number of virus cases are on the decline so there is no reason for the government to continue the ban on schools,” said Tika Ram Puri, president of the Private and Boarding Schools Organization Nepal.

Puri said they want schools to reopen by next week.

“The standard of education is deteriorating and students are getting the wrong idea about education in the country because of the long and frequent shutdown of schools,” said Sangina Gomja, high school science teacher. “Students in the villages haven’t had much education in the past two years.”

Students across Nepal lined up to pray at the temple of a Hindu goddess on Sunday as the country celebrated the annual Basant Panchami festival that marks the arrival of the spring season.

The goddess Saraswati is considered to be the deity of wisdom, knowledge and learning. Students would normally be celebrating the festival in their schools but this year they were all at home.

“Schools should open soon because we students have so much problems like disruptive internet, power cuts, disturbances at home and we are not able to study well,” said 12th grade student Rubita Karki. “Schools need to open up but there should be safety measures like mandatory face masks and the use of sanitizers.”

Some students were still worried.

Apsara Shrestha, a college student majoring in social works, said that the coronavirus was still a concern and was against the reopening of schools. “What if students fall sick or even die?”

Nepal has fully vaccinated 52% of the population that includes students and children aged 12 and above. It has reported more than 1 confirmed million coronavirus cases and 11,803 deaths since the pandemic began.

The government imposed tough restrictions last month as virus cases set a record. Schools were shut down, citizens ordered to carry vaccination cards in public, religious festival banned and theaters closed. Malls, markets and restaurants were allowed to serve only a small number of customers wearing masks. No date was given for the lifting of restrictions.

The government also limited road traffic, with bans on alternating days for vehicles with odd or even license plates.

Nepal logged 1, 386 new Covid-19 cases and 11 deaths on Sunday. 

With this, the country's active caseload mounted to 1,100,689. Similarly, the death toll has climbed to 11,614. 

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 6,443 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 1,183 returned positive. Likewise, 2,808 people underwent antigen tests, of which 203 tested positive.

The Ministry said that 8,704 infected people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours.

As of today, there are 45,248 active cases in the country. 

The Ministry said that 43,932 people are staying in home isolation while 1, 316 are in institutionalized isolation.

Among them, 268 are in the Intensive Care Unit while 46 are on ventilators.

Police on Sunday arrested three cadres of Youth Association Nepal (YAN), youth wing of the main opposition CPN-UML, for releasing black balloons outside the office of the Chief Minister in Gandaki Province.

The detainees have been identified as photo journalist Sanjay Shakya, Hari Adhikari and Tshering Phonchuk Thakuri.

Gandaki Province Chairman and YAN Central Secretary Mahendra Gurung said that they released the balloons as per the circular issued by the Association.

YAN representatives of Gandaki and Kaski Provinces and Centre released the balloons this afternoon.

They demanded that the government roll back its decision to hike the price of petroleum products.

Police on Saturday arrested two Indian nationals with 15 gram brown sugar from Mechinagar, Jhapa.

The arrestees have been identified as Mohammad Sultan (25) and Ranjit Ganesh (27) of Chunilal village in Darjeeling, India, DSP Basanta Pathak, Spokesperson of the District Police Office, Jhapa said.

A patrol team from Jamirgadhi Police Post and Armed Police Force (BOP), Jamirgadhi arrested them with the banned substance yesterday.

Police said that they have taken the duo have been kept at the Area Police Office, Dhulabari for further investigation. RSS