Kathmandu, February 11:

The students of Shree Chandeswori Primary School of Masel VDC-1, Gorkha, have been forced to study out in the open as the school building is in imminent risk of collapsing.

The school was built with the help of the local communities and most children of the Baram community — listed as a highly marginalised community by the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) — study there.

However, with little support from the government and other non-governmental organisations, the aged building is in great danger of collapsing, thereby posing grave danger to the students.

“After neither the District Education Office nor the District Administration Office of Gorkha supported the school, the school principal, Bal Krishna Sunar, along with other school representatives were in Kathmandu to seek support from the people of Gorkha living in Kathmandu,” said Prem Baram, president of Nepal Baram Association (NBA).

A part of the school building had already collapsed a year-and-a-half ago but nothing has been done since to prevent further damage, Baram added.

Baram said school principal Sunar has submitted a written request to the NBA seeking solution to the problem. Some 176 children of ward no 1,2 and 3 of Masel VDC study at the primary school. The Baram community students constitute 45 per cent of the children, while 17 per cent belong to dalit communities.

General secretary of the NBA, Purna Baram, said the school was benefiting some 475 households of three wards of Masel VDC.

Puran said that the school was situated in a remote area of Gorkha which was a day’s trek from the district headquarters. “The student record shows that girls outnumber boys in the school. There are 94 girls but only 82 boys,” Baram said.