Ramechhap, October 9

Betini Primary School in Bhaluwajor of Manthali Municipality, Ramechhap, has been running as many as three classes from a single classroom.

Principal Khadga Bahadur Thapa lamented the lack of adequate infrastructure at the school. “After the earthquake damaged some of our physical infrastructure three years ago, we don’t have enough classrooms. We’re running three classes — Grade 1, Nursery and Grade 2 — from the same classroom which isn’t spacious either,” he said, adding that sharing a single room has been problematic for teachers as well as students.

The school, which runs classes up to Grade VIII from Nursery requires at least 10 rooms, including a room for administrative purposes. Sadly, there are only two rooms where students can study with little comfort.

“As three teachers teach in the same room, teaching-learning activity has been really difficult,” said Dilmaya Shrestha, a teacher; while another teacher Padamlal Tamang also rued the plight of running three classes from the same room.

Principal Thapa further informed that they had reported about the problem faced by the school. “Out of the total eight rooms that we have, only two are in good condition. Running classes in the other six rooms is full of hassles. We did report the problem to the stakeholders, but no one paid any attention,” he said.

Though a school building is under construction now, the school has said the building won’t be enough. Though the school ran classes from temporary shelters made of bamboo for some time after the earthquake, the shelters have already fallen apart.

The school, which has a total of 125 students and 10 teachers, has been facing this problem after the earthquake three years ago destroyed part of the school.