Earlier, the 32-years-old school had to always ask for charity and manual labor from the villagers as government aid alone could not cover its expenses. [break]The community-run Bhuwaneshwari High School currently has 600 students, of whom 108 live in the school hostel.
“We have cultivated fruits and vegetables in 30 ropanis of land that belongs to the school,” said the headmaster of Bhuwaneshwari High School Yagyaraj Upreti. “The products give good return and we have no problem in paying salary to the teachers now,” he added.
According to him, the vegetable and fruits have also catered to the needs of the residential students and the families of nine school teachers. “We no more buy vegetables and fruits,” Upreti said, adding that the fruit products alone fetch around Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 annually.
The school cultivates vegetables including cauliflower, onion, peas, cucumber, bitter gourd and radish. Similarly, it grows mango, litchi, and guava, among other fruits.
According to Raghunath Bhatta, chairman of the school management committee, the agricultural experience counts as it would be easy to introduce agricultural education in the school in future.
Thanks to its good academic records, the school has been able to draw students from several VDCs such as Ganeshpur, Mastamandau, Kailpalmandau and Aalital. The students from the villages stay in the school hostel.
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