Taplejung, June 27:

School children in the northern parts of Taplejung district have been forced to rear yaks, after they could not get textbooks even after two-and-a-half months since the new academic session began.

“Merely four to five students come to school these days,” Dawayan Lama, headmaster of Yangma Primary School said, adding, “We are forced to teach students only general knowledge due to lack of textbooks.” “Teachers are going around to persuade the students to attend classes,” he said.

“We have managed to get a set of photocopies of the textbooks for each class,” Chyume Sherpa, a teacher at Ghunsa Lower Secondary School, said. “A physically-challenged Sherpa has been urging guardians in Gyabla and Phale VDCs to send their kids to the school,” headmaster Lila Chakra Gurung said, adding, 70 students of Ghunsa, Gyabla and Phale were enrolled in the school.

“Teaching and learning activity has been affected in schools in the northern parts of the district due to the lack of textbooks,” District Education Officer Khemnath Pokhrel said, adding that the unavailability of textbooks was sure to hit the performance of students.

Schools in this area are closed in the winter but remain open in the summer. With classes disrupted in the summer, the schools will face hard time completing the courses on time, teachers said.