LETTERS: Youth needs skills Apropos of the news story “SLC graduates quit studies for foreign jobs” (THT, August 7, Page 5), this tells the sorry state of affairs as they are seeking foreign jobs after SLC graduation. They are leaving the country for manual jobs as they lack the required skills and technical know-how which would fetch them more money than going abroad without any skills. Shockingly, many students from the mid-western and far-western regions choose to go to India for manual labour after they complete the SLC instead of continuing their education due to their weak financial condition. I urge the government to give a serious look at this scenario as SLC graduates are too young to work as labourers in foreign countries. The government should make arrangements so that the youths can at least complete plus two education at home and get some technical skills or training so that they can earn more than what they do without any skill at hand. More and more technical and vocational schools should be opened in all Pradeshes so that the skilled human resources can be absorbed within the country. The biggest question is what will those youths do after they return home after spending many years in foreign countries where they are least likely to learn any skill useful in their country. “Why is the birthplace of Buddha ignored?” (THT, Perspective, august 7, Page 1), sadly not even Buddha will have an answer to this question. He would have been shocked that the places where he attained enlightenment and nirvana are better maintained than where he was born. It should have been the other way round. Many years have passed since the devout and learned Japanese first handed over the Lumbini Development Master Plan to Nepal, millions of dollars have since been received in donation, aid and grant; absolute monarchy has been replaced by a federal democratic republic; tour officers and traders have grown into travel and hotel honchos; yet there are no tangible changes in the birthplace of the great Lord. The holy place is dotted with mushrooming ugly hotel buildings, dingy kiosks trading in ‘daru’ and ‘sekuwa’ which the Lord shunned. Stakeholders, who benefit the most from the visitors, alternate between counting dollars and blaming the government for the thinning visitor numbers. Some lay blame on the absence of direct flights to Lumbini from around the globe for the stunted growth in tourist arrivals. They seem to forget that lack of direct flight to Lukla has not dampened tourist flow into the Everest region. For their own good, the time has come for traders to promote Lumbini on their own. “Discussions between the Nepal Tourism Board, Airlines, HAN, Travel agencies, LDT and the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation”, as suggested by a trader, will end up in endless cups of lukewarm milk tea and stale biscuits. Manohar Shrestha, Kathmandu