BAJHANG, May 11: Without the consent of the District Education Office (DEO), 60 schools of Bajhang have announced three months of holiday for the teachers and students to pick yarsa.
Many schools in Talkot, Kanda, Masta, Surma and Pathivere rural municipalities and Bugal and Jayprithvi municipalities have already been closed for three months with the onset of the yarsa picking season. As per the school laws, no school can give such a long holiday to the students and teachers.
Aware of the development, the Bajhang DEO has turned a blind eye to the matter, instead of taking a stern action against these schools.
As the classes will be empty in the absence of the students, the teachers also decided to go to the mountains to pick the valuable herb by closing the schools. As informed by Ratan Bohora, a seventh grade student at Kanda Secondary School, Kanda, no student and teacher come to the school during this season. “Our courses are never completed. Even if we want to study, there are no teachers as they are all busy picking yarsa,” laments Bohora.
Yarsa picking banned for three years in West Rukum
Rana Bahadur Bam, former chairperson of Kanda VDC, accused the government of ignoring the schools and students of remote areas. According to him, there are not even five students in the VDC who have passed the School Leaving Certificate exams. “If the teachers were warned and offered a satisfactory salary, they wouldn't have to go to pick yarsa,” he said.
According to locals, there are many teachers in the district who are receiving salaries without going to school for months. Though the schools have been closed for three months, the teachers will be paid for these months as well, according to Khulya Bohora, a member of School Management Committee.
Soon after the yarsa season, the schools will be closed for the Dashain and Tihar festivals and then the winter vacation will begin. Long holidays as well as carelessness of teachers and school authority have badly affected the education of students in the district.
