Barpak (Gorkha), April 23

Ever since the April Earthquake flattened school buildings last year, three schools in Gorkha, Barpak have been operating their classes from a temporary learning centre.

After the school buildings of Akala Primary School, Jana Kalyan Primary School and Himalaya Higher Secondary School collapsed in the massive earthquake, they have been running their classes from a temporary learning centre constructed on the premises of the Himalaya school from the last academic session.

While Akala and Jana Kalyan schools have 57 and 40 students respectively, higher secondary school has a total of 961 students.

READ  ALSO

• Education in makeshift tents turns students away

• Delay in reconstruction threatens recovery of tourism sector

“On the one hand it has created a great inconvenience to students and teachers who have to walk all the way to this school (Himalaya) to attend classes, on the other it has created great trouble for the authorities concerned to run classes of three schools from the same structure,” lamented a teacher.

Students of Akala School are the hardest hit as they have to walk all the way to the Himalaya school.

“Students of Jana Kalyan School, however, do not have much problem as the entire village from there has shifted somewhere near the Himalaya school after the quake flattened it,” added the teacher.

On his part, Ram Kumar Ghale, a teacher at the Himalaya school, expressed apprehensions about the impact of earthquake and its consequences on the overall performance of students.

“The schools remained closed for months and even after the classes started all three schools had to be operated from make-shift structures. This has affected teaching-learning activities adversely,” said Ghale.

After all the four buildings that used to house a total of 19 rooms collapsed in the quake, Non-resident Nepalese Association had built temporary structures at the Himalaya school.

Though JICA is said to be planning to reconstruct the school at the cost of Rs 90 million, it’s not sure if the plan will materialise.

Regarding the damaged buildings of two other primary schools, no donor has expressed their interest in reconstructing them so far.

Established in 2017 BS, Himalaya School has also shut its hostel after the earthquakes last year. Some 48 students were staying in the hostel last year.