POKHARA: District Education Office, Kaski, has started monitoring various schools of the district in the aftermath of the massive earthquake of April 25 and its subsequent aftershocks.

A team led by District Education Officer Ambika Prasad Acharya took stock of as many as seven schools today.

The team monitored Nabin Higher Secondary School, Gairapatan; Barahi H S School, Malepatan; Motherland H S School, Masbar; Shree Krishna H S School, Masbar; Janapriya H S School, Simalchour; Sahara Lower Secondary School, Old Buspark; and Navaprabhat Secondary School in Nayabazaar today.

During the monitoring, the officials conducted interactions with school operators about the recent academic activities, students’ performance, physical infrastructure, availability and use of teaching materials and the impact of the recent devastating earthquake, said DEO Acharya.

In the case of the teachers who didn’t report to the schools or reported late for work at the concerned schools, the office will seek clarification and take action if the reason is not satisfactory, Acharya said.

“Necessary action will be taken against those Montessori, private and community schools if they are found operating illegitimately and irregular teachers are liable to penalty,” said Acharya.

Assistant District Education Officer Hem Narayan Chapagain said the attention of head teachers of the concerned schools had been drawn in relation to necessary improvements the schools had to make during monitoring.

“However, we found that some of the schools were making extra efforts to maintain conducive atmosphere despite high absenteeism among teachers,” said another Assistant District Education Officer Naba Raj Chapagain. According to him, of the 54 teachers in six of the monitored schools, some of them had not updated their attendance, whereas some others were maintaining fraudulent records.

Meanwhile, Nepal Teacher’s Association Kaski Chairman Shiromani Lamichhane, Nepal National Teacher’s Association Kaski Chairman Ram Prasad Pokhrel and All Nepal Teacher’s Association Kaski Chairman Sthir Babu Khanal lauded the DEO’s initiatives saying that this effort would make the schools more responsible and improve the quality of education.