The school was established at Khirahani VDC -1 Karaiya 12 years ago with the personal effort of social activist late Kishor Chandra Dhungana to uplift the backward Chepang children by providing them education. The expenses of stationery, books, hostel and food of the boarders are completely borne by the school itself.[break]
However, after the death of Dhungana in 2003, the school began experiencing financial problems, according to head teacher, Ghanashyam Pradhan. Faced with the financial burden, the school did not open new admission for class one this year. “With the deteriorating financial crisis in the school, we did not admit new students in the school this year. This is the first time in 12 years that we could not open new admissions,” said Pradhan.
Late Dhungana, who remained unmarried, devoted his time and property in establishing school, used to manage food, stationary, uniform and other necessary items for the all students admitted in the school. “In April 2000, Dhungana began gathering Chepang children and began teaching 20 children from the next session,” informed Pradhan.
According to teacher, Ram Babu Chaudhari, children study in the school up to 8th grade and then go to other schools for the further studies, but they remain in the school´s hostel until they complete 12 grade. The school has been providing shelter to 184 chepang students at present. 58 students have passed School Leaving Certificates so far.
“Nobody had to bother about the management as long as Dhunagana was here. After his death, it became harder to manage all the expenses,” Chaudhari said.
According to Pradhan, the annual overhead cost of the school is over Rs 3.2 million. However, only 2.6 million rupees has been managed through the assistance received from different organizations and leasing the 4 bigha land, which was received from Dhungana after his death. The school is bearing Rs 400,000 loss annually.
“Main donor of this school is Room To Read. It has said it will not continue its assistance beyond 2015. So we have to do on our own now,” Prahan said.
Pradhan has initiated campaign to set up a permanent fund of Rs 10 million to meet the running cost of the school. “If we fail collect the money to set up the permanent fund, we would be in a deeper financial crisis and will not be able to run school”, Pradhan added.
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