Kathmandu, August 15:

The Embassy of Japan in Kathmandu has agreed to extend a grant of $91,751, equivalent to approximately Rs 6,445,508 to Kanya (Girl’s) campus, Pokhara to construct female hostel.

According to a press release issued here today, the grant comes in Japan’s fiscal year 2005 under the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP) scheme of the government of Japan. Tsutomu Hiraoka, ambassador of Japan to Nepal, and Surendra Bahadur Bharijoo, campus chief of Kanya Campus, Pokhara singed and exchanged a grant contract to this effect, today. The grant will be utilised for the construction of a two-story hostel building of 10 rooms. The hostel will provide accommodation facilities for girl students pursuing studies in teachers’ training courses from the Mid-Western and Far-Western Development Regions.

Out of the total project cost of Rs 15,326,919, Kanya Campus will bear about 21 per cent of the cost, amounting to Rs 3,184,921, which will include procurement of furniture and the construction of a fence and compound wall. Similarly, the Japan-Nepal Female Education Association (JNFEA) will also contribute more than four million rupees, which will amount to about 37 per cent of the total cost, which will be used for the installation of electricity and for interior works and toilet facilities. Additionally, JNFEA is also providing scholarships which will pay, each year under the project of training of female teacher in remote areas of Nepal the hostel fee for 20 female students from the Mid-Western and Far-Western Development Regions.

However, once their studies are completed those students will be required to work as a teacher in the area of their origin. Their salaries will also be supported by JNFEA for the first three years. Speaking on the occasion, Hiraoka stressed the need for promoting girls’ education for the economic and social development of Nepal. He expressed his belief that Kanya Campus, with better hostel facilities and learning environment, will encourage female students from distant areas to pursue higher education, and their contribution to the field of education in the future will promote education in remote areas.