Tribhuvan Universiy (TU) has been forced to continue Proficiency Certificate Level (PCL) due to intense pressure from student unions affiliated to various political parties and non-cooperation from the education ministry.

TU agreed to open admissions at PCL during the talks held among representatives of the ministry of education, TU and the agitating student unions late evening Wednesday.

The student unions, in turn, have agreed to call off all protest programmes they had announced.

The four-hours talks held at the ministry of education also decided to form a high-level commission including representatives of student unions to study on whether or not to phase out PCL in future.

TU's academic council had decided not to take admissions at PCL from this year in line with the country's education policy to include the first twelve years of education at school level.

Following the council's decision, about a dozen student unions affiliated to various political parties had been jointly agitating against PCL phase out saying not all students could afford to study in higher secondary level due to high cost.

All Nepal National Independent Students Union - Revolutionary (ANNISU-R), the student wing of the Unified CPN (Maoist), had announced an indefinite closure of all higher secondary institutes across the country from Wednesday along with other protest programmes.

ANNISU-R cadres vandalised and torched about half-dozen vehicles belonging to government and some higher secondary institutes that had opened Wednesday.

TU's attempt to phase out PCL has been foiled for the third time due to student politics and government apathy. It had decided to phase out PCL about seventeen years ago for the first time.

The government did not take any responsibility to attract the students to higher secondary institutes after phasing out PCL, a TU official said. TU alone could not do much, he added.

Education minister Ram Chandra Kushwaha had said at a public function on Tuesday that he was against phasing out PCL.

Vice Chancellor (VC) of TU Madhav Sharma termed the situation unfortunate. "The government could have taken some alternative measures to address the situation," Sharma told Nepal Samacharpatra. "Now, TU is back to school level education after resumption of the PCL."

Following the agreement, Maoist aligned ANNISU-R has called off its hunger strike on Thursday morning. Three students from the union were on hunger strike at TU central office demanding resumption of admission in PCL. Similarly, the union has also called off all its protests programmes announced Tuesday.

Maoist students foil VC's foreign visit

Meanwhile, some persons claiming to be ANNISU-R cadres have obstructed VC Sharma from visiting Malaysia Wednesday.

According to Sharma, a group of people stopped his car near Tilganga, Gaushala at about 8.45 pm, Wednesday while he was on his way to the airport and asked for the tickets and the passport.

They entered the car and took away his passports and tickets forcing him return home.

Sharma was going to Malaysia to participate in a convocation function of a university there. nepalnews.com