Peace plea for Nepal classrooms

By Sushil Sharma
BBC correspondent in Kathmandu

Both sides have been accused of damaging education

Social activists and international donors have called for schools in Nepal to become peace zones.

Their plea follows numerous incidents in which schools and colleges have been used in the long-running armed conflict between troops and Maoist rebels.

A similar appeal was made last November by diplomats and aid agencies.

The latest effort to take conflict which has killed thousands away from the classroom comes ahead of National Education Day on Wednesday.

A number of social organisations including the leading non-governmental organisation, Child Workers in Nepal, have made the appeal.

Indiscriminate killings

Maoist rebels frequently abduct students and teachers and force them to attend political and cultural "programmes".

The rebels have been criticised for using schools in remote rural areas to provide shelter for those attending their courses.

Large numbers are made to attend and are released a few days later.

The security forces have also been blamed for the indiscriminate killing of students during operations against suspected rebels.

In November, the European Union, Norway, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Unicef and the Japanese international cooperation agency made a similar plea for schools and school children to be spared.

National Education Day, which focuses on making schools and colleges a peace zone, coincides with a five-day general strike called by the student wing of the Maoist rebels.

The strike is aimed at disrupting student elections in colleges.

The authorities say the rebels' student wing are terrorists.

Elections have been postponed in a number of colleges due to security concerns.