EDUCATION NEWS IN NEPAL
Students Forced to Study on the Floor Due to Lack of School Buildings
Date: [30th Jestha,2080]
Introduction:
In Sarkegad Rural Municipality-1 Jair Bhitgaon, located in the heart of Humla, Republic Primary School lacks a proper building, forcing children to study while sitting on the floor. The school building collapsed during last year’s floods, and since then, students have been struggling to find suitable places for studying.
The village of Jair, located 38 kilometers away from Simkot, the headquarters, currently has a dilapidated six-story school building. Three rooms were destroyed by floods, and the remaining three are unfit for use. As a result, students are forced to gather in three different barren fields to receive their education.
Meen Bahadur Rawat, the school principal, expressed his frustration with the situation. He explained that the students have been studying in other people’s fields since October. The lack of a proper school building means that classes cannot be held when it rains, forcing students to study in open fields only when the weather permits.
Despite repeated pleas to the rural municipality, Social Development Office, Karnali Province Ministry of Social Development, and Karnali Province Planning Commission for school reconstruction, no action has been taken. The number of students has decreased from 120 to 78 due to the lack of adequate facilities, negatively impacting education in the area.
Rawat further highlighted the challenges faced by the school staff, consisting of two officials, one child development teacher, one subsidized teacher from the municipality, and one school staff member. The situation becomes particularly difficult during the rainy season, as the students’ clothes quickly get dirty from sitting and studying in the barren fields. The students bring pieces of wood from home to create makeshift seating arrangements on the ground.
Despite reaching out to government and non-governmental agencies for assistance in constructing a new school building, the school has yet to receive any support. The agencies have failed to respond to the urgent need for improved infrastructure, leaving the students in a state of hardship.
The suffering is not limited to just one school. The students of Deval Basic School in Tumch village, Sarkegaard-1, face a similar predicament. They too have been forced to study sitting on the floor inside their classrooms due to the lack of desk benches.
Principal Kali Bahadur Rawat explained that while students in classes 7 and 8 have access to dilapidated benches, all other students, from Balvikas to class 6, are studying on the floor. Despite parents’ efforts to collect funds amounting to Rs 20,000 for classroom furniture, the students have been sitting on the floor for the past four years.
A total of 220 students attend Deval Basic School, and the headmaster’s requests for desk benches have fallen on deaf ears. The absence of a response from government and non-governmental bodies working in the region and the education sector has left the students without the necessary facilities for their education.
Attribution: Quotes and information sourced from interviews with Meen Bahadur Rawat, principal of Republic Primary School, and Kali Bahadur Rawat, principal of Deval Basic School.
#Sarkegad Rural Municipality, #education, #school infrastructure, #classroom furniture, learning conditions, #Humla, #student hardships
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