It has been five days and counting since educational institutions around the country were forced to close for an indefinite period of time. The banda, called by the All Nepal National Free Students Union Revolutionary (ANNFSU-R), could not have come at a worse time. The organisers are underground and the newly appointed Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has yet to announce a ministers council. Without negotiations between the two, the demands put up by the student organisations will not be met and until that happens, schools will not be allowed to reopen.

Deuba acknowledges the difficulty of the situation and says the problem will be dealt with once an education minister is appointed. It will not be that simple to hammer out an agreement. The first and most important demand made by the rebel students is the withdrawal of the terrorist tag. "If that is done, we will let classes resume," ANNFSU-R President Lekhnath Neupane stated in several radio interviews.

That is not something a minister can decide on his own. Removing the terrorist label from the Maoist students does the same for the rebels as a whole because the Maoist camp is made up of many groups: students, unionists and associations of different professionals. Such a blanket withdrawal needs cabinet level consensus and whether it will be amenable to this path depends on the government's future plans and policies.

In the meantime, the biggest casualties are the students. Frequent bandas called by different political parties forced many institutions to start extra classes during weekends and holidays to make up for lost days.

Unfortunately, their efforts were halted by the most recent banda called by ANNFSU-R. The two organisations of private schools, the Private and Boarding School Organisation Nepal (PABSON) and the National Private and Boarding School Organisation Nepal (NPABSON), submitted memorandums to the prime minister asking the government and rebel students to negotiate. But until a cabinet is decided upon and the Maoist students decide to emerge, both organisations and all of Nepal's schoolchildren will be forced to wait.