Since the handover of school education charge to the local government, people’s representatives, who are political party cadres, have started merging schools to serve their own interests. This irresponsible act may have benefitted some private schools operators but students have lost schools close to their home
–Krishna Malla : Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal
On May 30, Devi Lodh was found to be helping out their parents at their home in Gaidhawa Rural Municipality-9 in Rupandehi. A grade 10 student at the nearby Rastriya Secondary School, Ami, her roll number is 41. Together with her parents Rajendra and Sita Lodh, Devi’s reply to why she had not gone to school was: “Teachers asked me to go to another school. I did not go since it is far away.”
When the Sainamaina Municipality denied Rastriya Secondary School permission to run classes 9 and 10, Devi has failed to go to school since April 27. Having been to school continuously for the past 10 years, it is uncertain now if Devi will have her dream of completing grade 10 fulfilled. “I want to study. Nearby, there was problem with the subject. To reach far away, I have no bicycle,” said Devi.
On April 28, the school sent Devi back saying that there would be classes no more for grades 9 and 10. “Teachers told us not to come back again but to go to another school. We came back crying,” Devi said with a grim expression. She added that she could not join the Mahendranagar Secondary School due to the mismatch in optional subject Accountancy while the Pragati Secondary School at Sainamaina Municipality was too far away for her to join.
“My daughter had asked for a bicycle to go to school,” said Devi’s father Rajendra. “How can a poor man like me buy a bicycle?” he asked. Sita, the girl’s mother, is worried. “They say the government has taken away my daughter’s school,” she said. “Were she able to study up to grade 10, she would be cautious, would get a small job. The possibility is no more.”
Another tenth grader, Anisha BK of Gaidahawa was at home too. Studying after working in the morning and evening, BK said she had to stay home as the village school did not run classes for her. “Of course, I want to study,” she replied, adding that she cannot go very far away to study as both her father and mother have health problems.
Another student to quit school is Buddhiram Kewat of Dalani in Sainamaina Municipality-9. Chandraman Kewat, the father of the ninth grader, said the new government had done injustice by taking back his son’s school. While he had hoped the school would run classes for grades 11 and 12, Chandraman is angry at the rolling back of grades 9 and 10. “Many children of poor people like us had to leave school after the grades were trimmed to 8,” said Chandraman.
In Sainamaina Municipality-9, Harnaiya, five students were found to have dropped out of school. They are from the Dalit and backward Madhesi communities. When the nearby school was merged with a faraway school, they were deprived of going to school. Students and their guardians had the same explanation for not going to school: the distance. Urmila Pasi, Kumari Mallah, Urmila Mallah, Sonmati Pasi and Indramati Pasi, who had passed grade 9, were found at home. Asked why her daughter had not been sent to school, her mother Indramati Pasi said the school was far away.
If sent from home and accompanied by friends, these children want to study even by going to a faraway school. “I surely have a desire to study but I get no permission from home,” said Indramati. Kumari Mallah, another girl, said: “I would go if my friends went too.”
“I studied at this school. The grade was cut in my lot, taking away my study,” said Urmila Mallah. Prakash, the father of Sonmati, said: “I can’t send my daughter to a school away from the village. Boys harass her on the way.”
Teachers at the Ami-based Rastriya Secondary School in Sainamaina Municipality-7 were unhappy at the state of affairs. Asked about the ninth and tenth graders found at home, they said in one voice: “They did not allow us to run the classes.” Parents Teacher Union Chairman Rudra Bahadur BK said: “Teachers for the primary level are not qualified to teach at the secondary level. The school has no sanctioned posts for the secondary level. The teachers are sad to have been told that they can’t teach.”
BK said the municipality had done injustice to the school permitted to send students to take the School Leaving Certificate (School Education Examination at present) six years ago by passing its own law. “The municipality did not agree when we said we would run the programme on our own by collecting fees from students,” he added.
School records show that in the academic session that commenced from the Nepali New Year, 26 students had been enrolled in grade 9 and 41 in grade 10. Grade 8 has 84 students divided into two sections.
Rahul Pariyar of Hariyali Danda in Sainamaina 9 has stopped going to school since the local Janachetana Secondary School had the grade cut. Since the school in front of his home stopped running his classes, Pariyar has started working for daily wage. On June 30, he was spotted working at the Pashupati Secondary School, Saaljhandi, where toilets and compound wall were being built.
Irresponsible decisions
When the federal government ran a student enrolment programme across the country following a formal announcement, the local government at Sainamaina was writing to 12 schools in the municipality not to take in students above the specified grades. The letters asked the schools not to enroll students to grades 9 and 10 “at present in view of the existing numbers of students and human resource for making school education up to date, qualitative and effective, and for notable growth in the learning outcome”.
After receiving the letter, a joint meeting of Rastriya SS Ami management committee and the Parents Teacher Association (PTA) on April 20 decided not to cut down classes. Guardians had protested the order of the municipality to the school running secondary level classes for 16 years with permission not to enroll students to the top grades in the name of educational reforms. Guardians had argued that the grades could not be slashed as they were essential. The guardians’ meet had decided to “authorize PTA Chairman Rudra Bahadur BK to make efforts to retain the classes and to inform the local government about the severing of access to education of students from indigenous communities, Madhesis and backward classes, who account for 85 percent of the total students at the school”. But the municipality ignored the decision.
Municipality’s written notice (left) to Saljhandi SS stopping enrolling students in grade 9 & 10 while the management committee of school written notice to resume school.
In Sainamaina Municipality, six schools, including the Rastriya SS that had grades cut, have been “adjusted”. They include Kalika Bhawani, Gorakhnath, Inguriya, Sadbodara and Kanchan primary schools and Suddodhan Basic School. Rastriya Aami and Janachetana secondary schools have been stripped down to basic schools. From Kalika and Jyoti basic schools, grades 6, 7 and 8 have been removed.
In Tilottama, the municipal executive has endorsed the education committee’s recommendations to merge four schools with effect from the new academic year. These are Pragati Primary School in ward 1, Bhadrakali PS in ward 8, Narmadeshwar Khairiya PS in ward 14 and Bohiya Basic School in ward 16. These schools have been merged with Shankarnagar Durgadatta SS, Jyoti Basic School, Tikuligadh SS and Pashupati Model SS, respectively.
The Bhadrakali Basic School (grades 1-5), established in Tilottama Municipality-8 on November 22, 1986 has been merged with Jyoti Basic School (grades 1-8). The municipality ignored the minutes of the school management committee that stood against the merger. Founding chairman of the school Hemlal Dhakal said the school established with the sweat of the villagers was snatched away by the municipality.
Dhakal recalled his trip to Pokhara to get corrugated iron sheets for the school building and locals’ labour contribution of fetching stones, sand and wood for it. He said each household in the village contributed 10 days’ labour to build the school structure. “We were committed to making the school good. Even fans were installed with support from Mothers’ Groups and various donors,” said Dhakal, adding that the fans had now been taken away. “While visiting the school, the mayor appreciated the structure but shut the school by sending a letter the next day.”
Narbadeshwar Primary School in Tilottama Municipality-18 had been run by the Shiva trust established by the late social worker Astabhuja Chaudhari. To set up the school, he had given a bigha land 30 years ago. His son Ajay Kumar Chaudhari said the family was not consulted while merging the school even as his father was its patron. Headmaster Namonarayan Aryal said the school had 87 children until last school year while 47 were studying there when the merger decision was announced.
Parents Teacher Association Chairman Prem Bahadur Thapa said the municipality had done injustice to children by snatching their school away. He argues that the local representatives had made school for little children remote by shutting those close by amid pledges that they would be improved.
The complaint of Pharsuram Chhetri, chairman of Kanchan Primary School at Sainamaina 11, is similar. “Shutting down of the village school has robbed my hunger and sleep,” he said. “The school that villagers took pains to establish has gone away. There was hope that the people’s representatives would reform the school but they snatched it away instead.” Had the school been allowed to run classes up to 3 at least, small kids would not have to walk to a distant school, Chhetri added. After the merger of the school with Saljhandi SS, children here have had to walk between 45 minutes and one hour to school.
Names of schools that have been merged away or stopped from operating: Bhadrakali BS, Kanchan SS and Kalika Bhawani SS Photos: Krishna Malla
Some schools resisted nonetheless. Despite correspondence from Sainamaina Municipality to lower the grades or to merge the school, two schools have continued with their operation. After the parents made a resolve to run the school even without any help from the municipality, the local government failed to intervene in the two schools.
The schools saved by the locals’ effort are Saljhandi SS and Maherhawa Basic School. Saljhandi SS was asked not to take students in grades 9 and 10 and Maherhawa BS in grades 6, 7 and 8. School teachers and school management committee members were taken aback when the municipality, at the start of the new year, asked them not to admit students when they were running an enrollment campaign.
When Saljhandi SS guardians refused to take down the school level, municipal authorities exerted pressure verbally to guarantee resources and three teachers each paid at least Rs15, 000 per month. Following the municipal pressure, a guardians’ meeting decided to collect Rs 666 monthly from every child studying in grades 9 and 10, to have three teachers, and make public the income and expenditure details while running the school and submitted the minutes. As of the first week of May, 32 students were admitted to grade 9 and 63 to grade 10.
the decisions made and list of funds raised by guardians of Maherhawa and locals to save the school
Maherhawa BS Headmaster Surya Prasad Bhusal said the school saved its level due to the interest of the local residents and efforts of the school management committee. The municipality had written to the school to chop grades 6, 7 and 8 but it backed off after commitment to managing resources and increasing the student number. According to Bhusal, 24 students have been admitted to grade 6, 40 to grade 7 and 32 to grade 8. A campaign has been initiated to collect donations for depositing Rs 1 million in the school account for the current academic year. To save the school, donations have been collected from not only the guardians and villagers but also teachers and staffers.
The court has blocked the arbitrary decisions of the local government in Tilottama. The Bohiya Basic School in Tilottama-16 had filed a case in the Butwal bench of the Tulsipur High Court against the decision of the municipality to merge the school with the Pashupati Secondary School. The court has stayed the decision until its final verdict in the case.
The ruling says that the decisions of the local government lack legal validity since Article 226 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal provisions that the legislation of the local government is based on provincial laws which are yet to be passed. School case attorney and Diuhar Tole Committee Chairman Madhesh Bahadur Kunwar said, “The interim order of the court has given us justice.” Eighty-nine children are currently studying at the school.
According to the School Merger Directives-2070 of the Nepal government, schools with small number of students can be merged for uplifting their quality. For that, the school premises have to be close by and the walking distance between the two schools less than 30 minutes. For merger aimed at enhancing the quality of education, such schools having grades up to 10 must have students less than 140 in the Mountains, 205 in the hills and 270 in the Terai or Valley.
Such schools may be merged only in areas with low population growth rates and having communities where population may not grow even in the future. For merger happening due to low numbers, students must count less than 70 in the Mountains, 95 in the hills and 125 in the Valley/Terai. For any school to take up the merger process, they must have students fewer than the stated figures and there must be enough basis for the number not to grow in the future. Merger can happen only with an accessible school following the due process.
In the given cases, not only the government’s directives, the municipalities have flouted their own rules too. The education regulations of the municipality say the merger process begins with the management committees of two or more schools jointly applying for the process. But the schools that faced the merger are sending delegations to the municipalities with the minutes of decision not to go for merger. Besides, the court has ruled in favor of the schools protesting the merger.
In private schools’ interest
Since the Bhadrakali BS in Tilottama Municipality-8 was merged with the Jyoti Basic School, most of the students studying there have moved to private schools. Bimali Nepali said she had admitted her son Sahil to grade 1 in Bishwa Ekata Academy. The daily wage worker said she will have to manage Rs 1,000 in monthly fees and Rs 250 in bus fare for her son.
Local guardian Humlal Subedi has admitted his grandson Subhav Subedi to Nursery at the Navajyoti Boarding School. “We pleaded with municipal authorities to give us one teacher and not to take away small grades. But the municipality did not comply. I had to send my grandson to the private school.”
Kalika Bhawani PS in Sainamaina-9 is the only school in the ward. After the school was merged with the Janakalyan SS in Ward 7, children have had to walk for hours to the new school. They otherwise have the compulsion to go to a private school by paying the fees and bus fare. Jharana Nepali of Bhujeni village, Bikas Pariyar and Jina BK of Asneri are among the troubled students. The five-year-olds have to leave for Janakalyan SS at 8 am. Jharana’s mother Kalpani Nepali said: “If I don’t send her to the village school, I can’t pay my scarce hard-earned money to the boarding school. There are troubles sending this little child to school.”
The 24 community schools in Sainamaina Municipality have been brought down to 18. The figure compares with the private schools in the town. The municipality merged six schools, including four primary schools, this academic year. Four schools in the local level have got their grades slashed. Primary schools faced up to five grade cuts, lower secondary three and secondary two. Meanwhile, the municipality upgraded six private schools. Having given verbal assurances, the municipalities have not issued letters fearing more controversies. Assured, the schools have already begun new classes.
Tilottama Municipality has also merged four schools with others. The schools had been running classes up to five. On the other hand, the municipalities permitted seven private schools to run higher grades. According to the municipality, permissions were granted following field monitoring after the schools applied for running higher grades.
The rush of the people’s representatives seems to be for shrinking the space of community schools while increasing the scope of private schools. The elected officials involved in merging and degrading community schools are found to have invested in private schools. Guardians have alleged that they have turned harsh on public schools since they have investments in the private institutions.
Sainamaina Municipality chief Chitra Bahadur Karki is the promoter of the Murgiya-based New Academy. Ward 10 Chairman Lok Narayan Thapa and ward member Kalpana Kunwar operate the Paradise English School close to the Saljhandi SS. Thapa has admitted to have invested Rs 500,000 and Kunwar Rs 150,000 in the school. Ward 7 Chairman Dilaram Belbase runs the Buddha English School, which is closest to the Rastriya SS Ami that had its grades cut. Ward 6 Chairman Basanta Pandey also has shares in the school.
Khushiram Chaudhary, coordinator of the political mechanism formed for school merger in Sainamaina, has invested in the New Academy. “I have 5 per cent investment and Chitra Bahadur Karki 10 per cent in the New Academy,” said Chaudhary. Tilottama Municipality chief Basudev Ghimire is the operator of the Gyanganga Pathshala (Modern Little Flowers).
Tilottama Municipality has clarified that the schools merged had small numbers of students in them. Municipal Education Committee member and municipality spokesperson Surendra Shree claimed that the schools had been merged in order to uplift the educational quality and to upgrade their infrastructure. School Merger Committee coordinator Khushiram Chaudhary in Sainamaina said they had acted selflessly to improve the quality of community schools. “Even if we have investments in private schools, the merger process has been initiated for school reforms driven from our social responsibility.”
Sainamaina Municipality chief Chitra Bahadur Karki, who has invested in a private school, also claimed that they had acted in favor of community school reform. “Where has my plan facilitated private schools?” he posed a counter question. “Private school operators have been condemning me for imperiling their investments.” On the question of upgradation of private schools, he remarked that those completing the due procedure could not be stopped. Tilottama Municipality chief Basudev Ghimire has similar argument. “I’ve been working on the basis of where I am, rather than my past position. I’ll answer those talking about my investments with work.”
Merger without chance ‘unfortunate’
Prof. Ananda Man Singh Shakya, Educationist
It is sad that the local government engaged in merging schools without mapping them and slashing their grades. Haphazard merger has caused more worry. It is not that unnecessary schools must be kept intact but people’s representatives had to map schools and discuss the matter with local communities.
The people’s representatives should have first come up with plans to reform schools and taken initiatives but the merger agenda was put forth abruptly. The schools should have been given opportunities to teach students and improve their learning outcomes, with the elected officials joining the campaign. Merger could have been a way out only when all these techniques had been tried. This act of the municipality creates a situation in which community schools become less while their private counterparts grow. This will hamper implementation of the constitutional provision of free and compulsory education. (Based on conversation)
