US embassy cable - 02KATHMANDU2442

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 002442 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS AND DRL/BA 
STATE ALSO PLEASE PASS USAID/DCHA/OFDA 
MANILA FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA 
LONDON FOR POL/REIDEL 
TREASURY FOR GENERAL COUNSEL/DAUFHAUSER AND DAS JZARATE 
TREASURY ALSO FOR OFAC/RNEWCOMB AND TASK FORCE ON TERRORIST 
FINANCING 
JUSTICE FOR OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL/DLAUFMAN 
 
E.O 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER, PHUM, SOCI, PGOV, NP, Maoist Insurgency 
SUBJECT: NEPAL'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM DEVASTATED BY MAOISTS 
 
REF: (A) KATHMANDU 2307 
 
     (B) KATHMANDU 2151 
     (C) KATHMANDU 2228 
     (D) KATHMANDU 2280 
     (E) KATHMANDU 2346 
     (F) KATHMANDU 657 
 
1. Summary: The Nepali education system has suffered 
tremendously in the country's nearly seven years of ongoing 
Maoist insurgency.  Private schools have been shut down by 
the insurgents and teachers afraid of Maoist violence have 
abandoned their posts.  Public schools that are open often 
are crowded far beyond their capacity.  Students have 
reported that they are afraid to stay in school for fear of 
being forcibly recruited into the Maoist ranks. Educational 
strikes, violence against teachers, attacks on school 
property and fear of getting caught in the middle of clashes 
between government and Maoist forces have terrified children 
trying to concentrate on their studies. Overcrowded 
classrooms have seriously compromised the quality of 
education.  End summary. 
 
SCHOOLS CLOSED AND TEACHERS DISPLACED 
------------------------------------- 
 
2. Since the beginning of Nepal's Maoist insurgency in 1996, 
at least 700 private schools have been forcibly closed, 
according to estimates by the Private and Boarding School 
Organization of Nepal (PABSON).  President of the 
association Rajesh Khadka has stated that in 25 districts, 
the insurgency has forced all private schools to close their 
doors. 
 
3. Sources at the Department of Education (DOE) say that 
they have yet to complete a comprehensive assessment of the 
effect of the insurgency on public schools, but estimate 
that 3,000 teachers have been displaced by the Maoists, 
beaten or killed.  The DOE estimates that 100,000 students 
are unable to attend school as a result. 
 
4. Human rights organizations and interest groups cite 
figures that are considerably higher. According to the 
Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC), a human rights NGO, 
2,000 schools have been closed down nationwide, and 60,000 
children are unable to attend school in Surkhet district 
alone.  The Nepal Teachers' Organization asserts that many 
teachers in outlying areas have moved to district 
headquarters, while a number of others have been detained by 
security forces or the Maoists. 
 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS: OVERCROWDED, POORLY FUNDED 
------------------------------------------ 
 
5. As private schools are shut down by the insurgency, 
students are forced to move to already overburdened public 
schools.  Overcrowding in rural areas has reached crisis 
levels, with teacher to student ratios reaching 1:100 in 
some districts.  "And that's if all of the teachers show 
up," say analysts at World Education, an NGO monitoring the 
insurgency's impact on education. "If teachers have been 
displaced or simply don't come to school, there are even 
more students in a single classroom.  There is nowhere for 
them to sit, no supplies for them to use, or sometimes no 
teachers at all." 
 
6. Overcrowding has denied access to public schools for the 
poorest and most disadvantaged children in some areas. 
According to World Education, the press of students has led 
some government schools to enforce more strictly their 
documentary requirements for entry, in order to reduce 
enrollment.  Students who cannot provide birth certificates, 
proof of citizenship or other evidence that they are 
entitled to public school education are simply turned back 
at the door.  Typically, students who are from poor families 
or who have been displaced from their homes are less likely 
to possess the required documents than the students who have 
moved from private schools. 
 
7. Public schools in Maoist-affected areas also are 
suffering from a lack of funds for school management and 
maintenance, as neither the government nor the Maoists 
provide for schools' financial needs.  The schools visited 
by an NGO assessment team in August lacked sanitation 
facilities, water, furniture, books and supplies.  The same 
NGO found that in western Kailali district, if teachers try 
to raise funds through donations from parents, they are 
harassed by Maoists who see the donations as a fee.  Yet if 
the teachers ask the Maoists themselves for funds, the 
insurgents reply that their aim is not to solve problems but 
to create them to aid the insurgency. 
 
VIOLENCE AGAINST STUDENTS AND TEACHERS 
-------------------------------------- 
 
8. If social unrest and conflict are beneficial to the 
Maoist cause, the insurgents have spared no effort in 
pursuing their aims in the schools of Nepal.  Bomb attacks 
on school premises, violence against teachers and forced 
recruitment of students have made benefits of education less 
important to many children and parents than day-to-day 
security. Both sides of the conflict use school buildings as 
shelters, and both sides have interrogated students on 
school grounds. 
 
9. Students in southern Siraha district, for example, were 
terrorized by skirmishes between Maoists and government 
forces that took place inside their high school, during 
school hours.  The school was closed for ten days, and 
students are still frightened to attend classes. 
 
10. Children from rural areas have told NGO workers that 
they are afraid to walk to school for fear of being caught 
in the crossfire between government forces and Maoists. 
Post has reported several incidents in which children 
walking to school were killed or injured by Maoist bombs 
(refs B-D). Even simple facts of life have become serious 
threats for rural children--particularly girls--thanks to 
the Maoist practice of placing landmines and bombs in the 
brush near school buildings.  Most of the schools in the 
hills have no toilets, and those that do usually have 
facilities only for the boys.  When children walk away from 
the building and into the bushes, they encounter Maoist 
bombs. 
 
11. As children cope with an environment of fear and 
uncertainty, child welfare officers report that students' 
attention spans have shortened, they have become more easily 
distracted, and they pay less attention to their studies. 
Available statistics demonstrate that last year's school 
results in the rural districts were poor.  In Dipayal, 
capital of Doti district, 17 of the 25 primary schools 
failed to have a single student pass the final exam.  Only 
14 students in the district scored higher than the passing 
grade of 32 percent.  In northern Humla, the situation was 
even worse: only four students in the entire district passed 
their exams last year. 
 
12. Violence and threats against teachers have been 
widespread, and many have fled their posts. In eastern 
Bhojpur, for example, approximately 500 students were 
affected when four teachers failed to return to one 
secondary school after the Dasain holidays.  The students 
were unable to complete their math, English, economics or 
science courses in time for annual examinations.  In 
Melamchi, central Sindhupalchowk district, students boarded 
over the doors to their own secondary school building after 
all of the teachers, fearing Maoist attacks, abandoned their 
positions. 
 
EDUCATION STRIKES 
----------------- 
 
13. Not only rural students are affected.  Maoist insurgents 
this month declared an "indefinite educational strike" 
throughout the Kathmandu Valley (ref E), closing an 
estimated 5,000 schools and affecting over 500,000 students. 
A nationwide two-day educational strike took place 
concurrently, on December 11 and 12.  Though educational 
organizations in the Valley had initially stated their 
intention to observe the strike, or "bandh," for only five 
days, Maoist violence against schools defying the bandh in 
other areas of the country led the groups to recant. 
General observance of the strike has been extended until 
December 22. 
 
14. The Maoists have declared nationwide strikes throughout 
the past year, almost always to the detriment of education, 
and at least one seems to have been deliberately timed to 
disrupt student schedules.  In April, widespread public 
discontent with a strike slated for the same dates as 
national secondary school exams led Maoists to postpone the 
bandh until later in the month (ref F).  Despite vocal 
public protest of this month's indefinite strike, however, 
the Maoists have refused to compromise. 
 
CHILD LABOR, HEALTH, NUTRITION AFFECTED 
--------------------------------------- 
 
15. The effects of the ongoing insurgency on education are 
insidious.  Children who have lost parents in the insurgency 
are more likely to have to work to support their families, 
and therefore forgo their education.  Students with no 
access to health care are more likely to miss school as a 
result of illness.  In Rukum, security concerns have put an 
end to a seven-year-old UNFP program that delivered nutrient- 
enriched meals to 13,000 primary school students free of 
cost.  Food stopped reaching schools in September, when 
security forces, suspecting that the supplies were being 
used by Maoists, put an embargo on distribution.  Attendance 
has steadily tapered off since the schools have stopped 
distributing free meals.  One primary school reported a drop 
from 220 students to 120 in the last three months. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
16. Maoist claims of being pro-education are becoming more 
ridiculous by the day as regional strikes and nationwide 
warfare continue to deprive students of the chance to go to 
school and the right to security.  Progress in combating 
child labor, increases in literacy and school attendance and 
other gains in the fight for education of Nepali children 
are sliding backwards in the face of the Maoist onslaught. 
Though political parties, NGOs and many donor countries have 
remained relatively silent on the issue until now, the 
recently declared educational strike in Kathmandu has 
sparked some public outcry and a call by human rights groups 
for the government and the insurgents to declare schools as 
"safe havens" or "peace zones."  But though the GON may be 
spurred out of its inertia by public protests, it remains to 
be seen whether the Maoists will back down from their 
intransigent demands and to let Nepal's children get back to 
the business of education. 
 
MALINOWSKI