RUKUM, May 11: Janasudhar Basic School located at Sisne village of eastern Rukum has three teachers and an office assistant while it has only four students. The school has permission to run classes up to the fifth grade.
"We have students only in nursery and grade 2 and no student in other grades. The number of total students is just four," said Principal Sharmila Poudel.
School dropout rate high in Rolpa
The school does not open regularly, according to locals. Neither do the students come to the school every day.
Poudel, however, claimed that the school remains open in the morning but due to the lack of students it is closed before time. "Despite trying hard to bring in more students this year, we couldn't do so. We ran an admission campaign but the student number did not rise," said Poudel. "We open the school in the morning but then soon close it."
It is not that there is no need of a school in the area. The locals say that there should have been a quality school, unlike the basic school.
"The children here go to other far away schools to study. Had this school been providing good education, they would have come to study here only," said a local. "This school is simply not serving any purpose."
Meanwhile, ward chairperson Kharkasingh Thapa stated that the school is not performing well and might be closed. "It might get closed soon. There are necessary infrastructures though," he said.
The school has two buildings, furniture and its own playground.
