Manoj Shrestha

Biratnagar, March 16:

The morning assembly is over in the Udayanand Memorial boarding school at Biratnagar sub-metropolitan city-16, and now it’s the time for the news. Sixth grader Nisha Dangol reads out the headlines: ‘A bomb factory destroyed in Doti’; ‘US Secretary in India’.

This is a practice that was started in the school, which has classes till the seventh standard, two years ago. Students from fifth standard upwards are given the responsibility to read out the important national and international news regularly. Two news items are read out in Nepali and two in English.

There are lots of poor children in UMBS. According to in-charge Suresh Shrestha, many of them have no access to television or radio or newspapers at home. “The practice gives them a portal to what’s happening in the world around them.”

The news reading programme was started to make the students confident and comfortable to face and speak in front of gatherings, said headmaster Nava Raj Lamsal.

And students feel the programme has been to their advantage as they now feel more at ease to communicate with and handle various persons, even those holding high positions. Sixth grader Santosh Chaudhary said he feels that he is a different person now-a-days. The sources of the students’ news are Radio Nepal, Nepal Television, Aaj Tak, CNN, and BBC channels, said seventh grader Pragati Pokharel.

Reading out news to a gathering of 300 students and around 18 teachers is not a joke. And Pragati starts her preparation one or two days prior to her turn to read out the news by watching the news channels and listening to radios, says her mother, Gita Pokharel. Pragati consults her mother, neighbours and friends to give the best news possible. According to students, they write the news in their own words, and reads out straight from the newspapers only when they are unable to prepare one. The news reading is followed by comments from other students on a certain topic.