Today (Ashadh 31, 2081), Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has sworn in Bidhya Bhattarai as the new Minister of Education, Science, and Technology of Nepal.
She is a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Health, and Information Technology, elected from Kaski Constituency No. 2. She has an MA in Sociology and an MPhil in Anthropology, and she became a member of parliament after leaving her position as an associate professor of sociology at Tribhuvan University.
In 1998, she was the central secretary of ANNFSU, the Valley Women's Committee secretary, and a member of the Federal Women's Department in 2010. She remained active in the party's education department until 2018. This appointment marks her first time serving as a minister.
Following the tragic death of her husband, Rabindra Adhikari, in a helicopter crash in Taplejung, she ran in the 2019 by-elections from Kaski and won. She was directly elected from the same constituency again in the 2022 elections. Previously, on March 7, 2024, Sumana Shrestha from the Rastriya Swatantra Party served as the Minister of Education.
