Lone Maoist school still functional

THAWANG, July 8: He used to teach his students to say A for army and B for bomb. But having once quit his own studies after 10th grade to teach children of Maoists killed in battle, Pradeep Pun last year joined a government school, determined to pass the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) exams. [break]



Students of the Model Martyrs Memorial People´s School in Thawang, the village known as the cradle of the Maoist insurgency, have also followed Pun and got enrolled in Shree Bir Balbhadra Higher Secondary School.



Model Martyrs Memorial People´s School, that had 84 students and offered education up to sixth grade, is now closed. Another teacher from that school, Hurmat Rokka, studies in 12th grade at Shree Bir Balbhadra Higher Secondary, a government school, while yet another teacher, Harikala Buda, is in Kathmandu with her Constituent Assembly member husband Santosh Buda. Four other teachers are awaiting appointment to the government school that already has a faculty of 22 teachers for around 500 students.



The Maoists had opened their first people´s school at Pachhawang, Rolpa district in 2053 BS and the number of such schools reached 21 by the time they joined the government. But these schools have now lost their distinct identity and most have been merged with government schools along with their furniture.



"The schools have suffered this plight due to lack of help from the party," reasons district president of the All Nepal Teachers´ Association, Ganesh KC.



Basu Memorial Model School, established at Morabang, Kyangsi five years ago, is the only remaining functional people´s school with its 111 students including 20 insurgency orphans. The school, with residential facilities for all students except the local ones, has six teachers and three cooks working as volunteers, and all but two of them are full-time members of the Maoist party.



The school has not expanded beyond the fourth grade for lack of funds and premises. The Maoists bear all the expenses of the school which comes out at approximately Rs 250,000 per month.



The school still uses communist terminology while introducing the alphabet to students, as per the curriculum set by the New People´s Education regional department, and it also teaches about weapons. The students are given military training and taught about the biography of Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

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