Posted on 06/05/2004 8:34:21 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Edited on 07/12/2004 3:42:15 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Kathmandu, Nepal, Jun. 4 (UPI) -- Maoist rebels have abducted about 500 teachers from 30 villages of Nepal's Udaypur district this week, reports said Friday.
The District Education Officer said there are a total 578 teachers in the district.
The rebels reportedly abducted the teachers to give them training on Maoist literature and to pressure the teachers into following the Maoist educational calendar, nepalnews.com. said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
They are demanding free education and syllabi that "serve the interests of the workers, peasants and other oppressed classes of society".
The rebels have introduced their own school calendar that includes annual holidays like Martyrs Day and Lenin's Day.
They want to scrap existing public holidays like the king's birthday, Constitution Day and the Hindu festival of Durga Puja.
The Maoists have declared a ban on subjects like Sanskrit, history and social studies in remote rural areas, most of which they control. The national anthem and other patriotic songs have also been forbidden, and the Maoists want these replaced with paeans to their martyrs.
Abducted teachers are trained to extol the virtues of the guerrillas, whose attacks over the past few years have scared away the economy's onetime mainstay, tourists, and destroyed infrastructure worth thousands of dollars.
The Nepal Teachers' Association estimates that the Maoists have burnt 89 schools, 27 of them through bomb blasts, and killed 274 children.
"The Maoists have been maiming and brutally beating teachers and ordinary people with stones and hammers in a flamboyant display of medieval barbarism," says association president Keshav Prasad Bhattarai.
"The Maoists are more interested in disrupting the existing process than introducing alternative curriculum or education systems," he charged.
Countered Bipin, a Maoist leader in Rautahat district: "We are taking teachers to train them in the People's Education System that caters to oppressed people. The existing system is reactionary and feudalistic." - http://news.newkerala.com/world-news/index.php?action=fullnews&showcomments=1&id=19093
these nepalese maoists sound like slightly more serious People for the American way or ACLU types.
Same goals, different means.
Isn't this the same thing the NEA did decades ago here in the USA?
Ah, but they didn't need to use guns to get it done. more subtle.
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