There are about 600 students in Notre Dame School. About 120 are Dalits or from poor backgrounds and pay no fees at all. Their education is free. Another 120 students pay only half the fees. Every month the school has a fund shortfall, which is covered through Japanese aid-this deficit is anything between Rs 80,000 and Rs 200,000 every month. The real reason for describing this school is not that it is not doing good work, but for something else. A close relative of Devendra Parajuli (leader of the Maoist students' wing, the ANNFSU-Revolutionary) appeared for his school-leaving certificate (SLC) exams at this school. He had applied for a scholarship but his application was rejected. On its part the school has always called upon those against it to examine its accounts.

The fees collected by schools in Kathmandu have to be studied scientifically and in terms of their practicability. You should analyse how much it costs to keep a student in school and how much each one pays in fees. You have to find out how much money the school is making. There should be a line drawn on schools' profits. If the amount a school spends per student is equal to the amount they charge as fees, then the ANNFSU (R) has no moral right to tie up teachers and pour kerosene on them. The ANNFSU(R) should not blur the line between political and criminal acts. Otherwise it, too, will have to face the music once the people rise up to oppose them.

Another important point is whether the ANNFSU(R) is collecting money from private and boarding schools? If yes, they we must ask why they are doing that. What is the philosophy of the ANNFSU(R) about the security and future of our students? We hear of children in Rolpa, not more than 11 or 12 years old, walking around with grenades. The ANNFSU(R) has to make clear its opinion on this. Is it really concerned about the future of this country's children?

The ANNFSU( R) is trying to prove that it is very different from its mother organisation. By asking for changes to be brought about in the field of education it wants to portray itself as a force for positive change, and not a reactionary force. But this claim becomes suspect when you ask what the connection is between positive change and the collection of money from schools. This raises doubts about the student union's commitment and so-called sense of duty.
Also in the name of positive changes, the Maoists have imposed a dress code for women. What a woman wears should be left to her choice. Some time ago in India the pro-Khalistan forces and now the pro-BJP groups, especially the Bajrang Dal tried the same thing. The Taliban in Afghanistan is also doing the same. They call themselves Islamic Revolutionaries. The ANNFSU(R) has not protested this sort of behaviour by elements in its sister organisations. It is getting very difficult to believe them when they talk of bringing about changes in the field of education.