Even though the Jumla District Education Office had instructed school administrations to resume classes after the holidays from October 20, most of the schools in the district still remain closed.[break]
Sita Secondary School at Raralihi VDC of Jumla district has reopened but there are no teachers and only four students out of the total 730 are attending their classes. As all the teachers are still on vacation, the school is currently being run by two locals. Principal of the school Shiva Prasad Panday and the regular teachers Devi Ram Gautam, Gamhir Bahadur KC, Top Bahadur Bhattarai and Dhanrup Upadhaya have not reported to duty after the holidays, informed a local.
"All of them had left Jumla two days before the start of the festival and they have not yet returned. How can our children study when teachers become so reckless," said the local.
Meanwhile, chairman of the school´s management committee Suran Basnet revealed that the students had stopped coming to the school a week before the Dashain holidays started.
"Besides the excitements about the festival, most of the students are engaged in household chores and they rarely have time for study. Moreover, their parents also discourage them from going to school," said Basnet.
"It´s not that we haven´t tried to persuading the parents to send their children to school regularly, but all our attempts have been unsuccessful," added Basnet.
Local teacher Birkha Basnet, who is working as replacement, informed that only 3-4 students are coming to school after the festival.
While talking to Republica, Basanta Rawal, a ninth grader, shared that they are only having Nepali class as all the other teachers are still on leave.
"Had the teachers been serious about taking regular classes, other students would certainly come to school regularly," said Rawal. Besides Top Bahadur Bhattarai, all the other teachers are from other districts.
Other schools in the district like Swaraswati Higher Secondary School, Durga Higher Secondary School and Tribhuwan Higher Secondary School are also seeing poor attendance of both students and teachers.
Related story
Jumla schools without teachers even after holidays are over
