Admission is open throughout the year, and the school management committee runs classes from the first grade to the tenth. A new student can join classes any time of the year, while many students end up being released from prison before completing a grade. [break]
What the school management committee is proud of is the school´s SLC pass percentage. The school, established 50 years ago, has been recording hundred percent pass percentage in SLC exams.
While government schools across the country are not able to achieve 100 percent success despite huge investment, the school, which is neglected, has always scored 100 percent success result, according to Nabaraj Lamsal, principal of the Jagannath High School of Central Prison.
“All students who appeared in SLC exam last year passed the exam,” Lamsal said, adding, “About 80 percent students scored first division marks.”
Forty- five students sat for SLC exam from the prison school last year. Only 10 students passed in second division. Lamsal said that 10 students scored above 70 percent marks. This year, 43 students are preparing for SLC.
Due to limited room in the prison, the school is running in two shifts: morning and evening. Primary level classes start from 5:30 in the morning. Lower secondary and secondary level classes start from 5:30 pm. The evening shift lasts up to 9:30 pm.
“There is no break between classes,” said Lamsal.
Though students can enroll any time of the year, they have to present academic certificates to choose grades. If not, the school takes admission test of the students.
The rooms where classes are conduted from 5:30 am to 9:30 pm are used by prisoners for sleeping at night as the central prison is already crowded.
“The jail has the capacity of accomodating 500 inmates but we already have more than 2,000 inmates,” Jailer Tirtharaj Bhattarai, who is also chairman of the school management committee, said.
And the teachers are also inmates. They get salary for teaching. At the central jail, highly educated people including doctors, pilots, and lawyers are serving terms. There are three doctors and three pilots.
The government provides one teacher´s vacancy in secondary level, four in lower secondary level and four in primary level. But the vacancy is not sufficient. The school has hired four teachers from among the inmates.
According to the school management committee, the number of students are high in grades 7,8, 9 and 10. “Students who dropped out of school in those classes and got involved in crimes resume schools after they come to the prison,” Bhattarai added.
The illiterate inmates above 60 are also enrolling for classes. Jailer Bhattarai claimed that inmates educated in the school generally do not go back to crime. Some inmates in other prisons seek transfer to central jail so that they can study in the school, he added.
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