Kathmandu, February 2, 2007

The Mantaranga monthly magazine with support of the locals of Tahachal has planned to erect statues of four martyrs of Jana Andolan II at Teku.

Statues of four martyrs — Dipak Biswokarma, Sagun Tamrakar and Basudev Ghimire who died in Kalanki on April 20 and of Pradhumna Khadka who died on May 9 — would be erected, Niranjan Khanal, a member of the Memorial Construction Committee said. He added that there were plans to construct a park and a public lavatory on the two ropanis of land provided by the Ministry of Local Development in Kathmandu Metropolitan City-12. Khanal said, “We are trying to immortalise the martyrs who laid their lives for giving us a new Nepal and this should be a humble tribute by the citizens to the martyrs.” Khanal also complained that the KMC did not show any interest in their plan.

Meanwhile, the committee is going to organise Bishnumati Festival from February 8 for some five months at Teku to collect funds for the project. The committee expects to collect Rs 5 million from the festival while the construction is estimated to cost Rs 5.07 million.

Ministry launches open school project to check dropout rate

Kathmandu, February 2, 2007

The Non-Formal Education Centre under the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) has launched a pilot project in Kathmandu and Banke to provide education to early school dropouts.

Laxman Khanal, deputy director of the Non-Formal Education Centre, said, “Literacy rate is less than 40 per cent in around 30 districts. In accordance with the national policy, the non-formal education programme is being launched in 17 districts.

At the end of this fiscal year, a village education plan will be implemented in 600 Village Development Committees. The plan has already been implemented in 373 VDCs,” Khanal said at an interaction held here today. The current average dropout rate in Kathmandu is 4.34 per cent. “As per the national policy, the government has piloted the open school concept in Banke and Kathmandu for early dropout students,” he said, adding, “We are employing an education motivator in each VDC to find why students abort studies.

The reasons for aborting studies will be conveyed to authorities concerned so that measures can be taken to prevent students from aborting studies.” Gita Ghimire, section officer at the Department of Education, said, “To regulate the child’s education, the department is conducting Early Child Development Programme, providing 50 percent scholarships.”