Ramechhap, March 4

Physical infrastructure of a number of schools in Ramechhap that were merged with other schools in the district have been falling apart due to lack of plan of the state authorities concerned regarding their management.

A case in point, physical infrastructure of Dhungeshwori Primary School of Dhungeshwori in Manthali Municipality is slowly falling apart after the school was merged with Manthali Secondary School last year.

“The timber and zinc sheets used in the school building have started to come off and the school building looks as if it was left in utter neglect, but no government authority has bothered to manage the infrastructure,” said Laxman Bhujel, a local.

Similarly, last year, Manthali’s Bhaluwajor-based Nabughat Primary School was merged with nearby Seleghat Primary School. Nabughat school had two solid buildings, but ever since the school was merged, the buildings now look totally run down and serve as a playground for local children. “The desks and benches at the school are abandoned and nobody knows for sure how many have been lost or stolen, or how many are left,” said a local, Mangal Majhi, wondering why the authorities concerned had not taken steps to protect the physical infrastructure of such schools in his area and elsewhere in the district.

As many as eight schools with low number of students were merged with nearby schools in Manthali since the last academic session.

On his part, Manthali Mayor Ramesh Kumar Basnet said the municipality was preparing to make a decision regarding the management of physical infrastructure of merged schools.

“As for the infrastructure, we’re thinking of handing over the infrastructure to nearby schools. We’ll take a decision to this effect in the next executive meeting of the municipality,” he said.

A local, civil society leader Govind Prasad Ghimire, however, took exception to the municipality’s plan and demanded that the school buildings be handed over to the local community instead.

“At a time when the government is spending a huge amount for construction of community buildings, it makes sense for the authorities to hand over the school buildings to the custody of the community,” he argued.

Chief District Officer Krishna Prasad Sharma said he was for protecting such structures for emergency. “The fact that many families took shelter in schools for months after the 2015 earthquakes is still alive in our memory. So we should protect these structures rather than destroy them as they are handy during times of disaster,” he said.