Dolpa school children without textbooks

Dolpa / Apr 5: Getting fresh textbooks along with the beginning of the new academic session is usually a moment of waiting for almost all school students in Dolpa district.

But some 1,100 students in Dolpa do not know how long they have to wait for seeing new course books in hand. School children of Jagadulla rural municipality-9 that lies in Lower Dolpa are attending class without books.

It has been already two months since the new academic session had begun in this mountainous district in Karnali state. According to the Mahadev Basic School Management Committee, the local government is responsible for this delay in delivering the school textbooks. The situation appeared as the local government did not purchase the texts on time for the distribution.

School principal Heera Bahadur Thapa, said teachers are taking the help of old texts to teach a class. One Shrawan Kumar Rokaya who owns the contract of supplying books here said the purchase had been already made.

But, the timely transportation could not be possible as a way in Jumla en route to Dolpa was obstructed by the snowfall. He promised that schools at Jagadulla will get books within the next few days.

According to principal Thapa, the local government has made the teaching in English medium a mandatory from class one to five, but the school is finding it hard to implement the provision in lack of textbooks. Rural municipality’s civil service employee Keshab Jaisi assigned to look after the education unit also echoed in line with Rokaya. Snowfall in Jumla hampered the timely transportation of books to the district, he added.

Guardian Nanda Bahadur Lama said students are going school with one or two old textbooks they borrowed from their seniors. Rural municipality chair Narasingh Rokaya also found the local agent responsible for the situation. RSS