Rolpa students return home after Korea visit

Rolpa, June 27

A four-member team of Jana Kalyan Secondary School in Simpani of Tribeni Rural Municipality, Rolpa, returned home after completing their 11-day educational tour to two major cities of the Republic of Korea — Seoul and Daegu.

The tour for three students and the headmaster of the school was organised by the Um Hong Gil Human Foundation, an INGO dedicated to building schools for the rural communities of Nepal, and the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education, according to Neelam Thapa, a representative of the foundation.

UHGHF’s founder and renowned South Korean alpinist Captain Um Hong Gil had initially planned to build 16 schools as he had climbed the same number of mountain peaks in Nepal.

Till now, the organisation has built 14 schools and has already handed them over to the local communities.

She added that toppers Anita Gharti Magar, Harisara Gharti Magar and Yubaraj Dangi from primary, lower secondary and secondary levels of the school respectively were selected for the tour.

During the tour, they visited some schools in Daegu and attended classes with their Korean friends. They also stayed with Korean families and learnt the local culture and lifestyle, according to participants.

The students said they learnt a lot about Korea during the tour.

“We also had an opportunity to visit the Daegue Metropolitan Office of Education and learnt about the city’s education system,” Dangi said. Besides, students also observed the infrastructure development and economic progress of Daegue and Seoul.

“We learnt about the importance of sanitation and hygiene, heritage conservation and environment protection,” said Anita Gharti Magar of Grade X, who was a member of the team.

With support from about 50,000 students studying in more than 300 schools under the Daegue Metropolitan Office of Education, a 12-room earthquake-resistant building of the school has already been constructed. Six more rooms are now under construction with the

financial assistance of UHGHF.

The school now has good infrastructure, including separate toilets for boys and girls, proper drinking water facility, library, science lab and computer classroom.

At present, the school has more than 625 students. Of them, girls account for more than 60 per cent of the total number of students.

Known as the epicentre of Maoist insurgency, Rolpa lags behind in terms of social and economic development.

Most of the residents of conflict-hit Simpani village are from the Magar community.