The number of students at the Nepal Rastriya Saraswati Primary School in Ambapur of Subhaghat Bheriganga municipality of Surkhet district has been declining every year since the past decade.
Six teachers have been mentoring 12 students. The school seems more like a place for the teachers to kill time rather than a tutoring center.
The school, which used to be jam-packed with 300 to 400 students until a decade ago wears a deserted look now. Classrooms are almost empty. Although the school meets all requirements of an ideal school like large playground, sufficient classrooms, drinking water facility, toilet and others, it has failed to attract the attention of parents and students.
The school administration informed that out of 21 students enrolled in the ongoing academic session, five are from the same family. Fifteen of them are from the Dalit community and the remaining six are from ethnic groups. They do not go to school regularly. Out of eight daughters of Khadka Bahadur Sunar, five have been enrolled in the school. Among the teachers, five have already completed their tenure.
The school administration blamed newly opened English-medium schools in the villages for the dwindling number of students in the school, which was established in 1985. Students used to be packed even until the peace process started in the country in 2005.
"English-medium schools that opened in the villages in 2005 have taken our students," said the school Principal Rudra Bahadur Ghale. The school administration is yet to introduce programs to attract students and their parents even though they have been witnessing the declining number of students every year.
At least one classroom remains empty every day. The school's register shows that only two students, one each in grade one and two, have admitted in the ongoing academic year. But they remain absent most of the time.
"We cannot run class one and two due to lack of students most of the time," Prem Bahadur Thapa, a teacher at the school, said, adding that the school has been running a single class of different grades in the same room.
The school administration informed that 30 students were enrolled last year. Among them, 24 were present in the final year examination. "They not only remain absent in the class but also in the examination," said Thapa. He anticipates that about 15 students would participate in the final examination this year. "We cannot encourage the students to come to school regularly," concedes, principal, Ghale. He shows helplessness to lure new students in the school.
The school had to confiscate books of students and write formal letters to their parents asking them to send their children to school regularly, as a technique to bring the students to the school. But that did not yield any result.
"We have confiscated books of irregular students thinking that their parents would send their children to school regularly," said principal Ghale, adding, "The move backfired as the students stopped coming school after we took their book."
Parents of the students too are irresponsible toward the future of their children. They do not visit school after the time of admission. "What can we do when the parents of students become irresponsible?" questioned principal Ghale.
The school management committee has been formed but it rarely holds meeting and no one raises issue of the dwindling number of students. Teachers at the school say that they have lots of spare time due to the less number of students.
"We are free as we have very few students," Durga Bahadur BK, another teacher at the school, said.
Not only are the students irregular in the school. Teachers too remain absent. "Most of the students and teacher came today, as they knew you were going to visit," a teacher said, adding, that most of the time only two to three teacher and about a dozen students come to the school.
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