Dolakha, April 23
Students of dozens of basic level schools have been compelled to take classes in temporary huts for the last four years due to delay in reconstruction of school buildings that were destroyed by the 2015 earthquakes in Dolakha.
As many as 170 students of Gurjapa Basic Level School have been taking classes inside huts roofed with zinc sheets as their quake-hit building is yet to be reconstructed.
Head teacher Thilen Sherpa said different organisations and projects involved with reconstruction work had not paid attention to the construction of the basic level school buildings.
“Teaching-learning activities were affected by storms following rainfall almost daily,” Sherpa said. He added that his requests to various organisations and projects for reconstruction of the school had fallen on deaf ears.
Around 90 per cent children from marginalised Thami community study in the school.
Chairman Chun Bahadur Thami of the school management committee said that no one had paid attention to the need to construct the basic level school buildings.
Survey for construction of the school building was carried out with loan assistance from the Indian government through Line of Credit.
Construction work was left in a lurch after India did not carry out reconstruction of the schools in 14 quake-hit districts.
Thami said the school had sent a letter to Asian Development Bank for reconstruction. “But Asian Development Bank responded saying they would not reconstruct basic level schools,” he added.
The school building was constructed with the help of two foreigners before the 2015 earthquakes. Thami said students were compelled to study in temporary huts after the building was damaged in the disaster.
Thami added that the school lacked money to demolish its cracked building.
Similarly, more than hundred students at Kali Devi Basic Level School are taking classes inside temporary huts at Baityashwor Rural Municipality. The basic level schools in the district are under the shadow even though reconstruction of secondary level school buildings has reached in the final stage.
Engineer Rajendra Kumar Shrestha of District Project Implementation Unit (Education) said that reconstruction of more than one dozen schools had yet to take place in the district.
A version of this article appears in print on April 24, 2019 of The Himalayan Times.
