UDAYAPUR, May 11: For years, private schools have been preferred to public or community schools for enrollment of children. But a community school in Udayapur has set a different example.
Established in the heart of the district headquarters, Triyuga Secondary School has been flooded with requests for admission from new students. While public schools in the district have been carrying out several promotional activities to lure students, Triyuga had to stop the intake on April 28. The school has been rejecting requests for admission since then. This has disheartened a significant number of parents.
“We did not even conduct any promotional events like other schools, yet the demand for enrollment is increasing,” said principal of the school, Subhash Bista, “We have been rejecting about 25 students on a daily basis after the demand exceeded the infrastructure, human resource, and management capacity of the school.”
Community School in Bhaktapur attracts too many students
The school, which has at least three sections for each grade, has admitted 400 new students this year. According to the school officials, top students from as many as 12 schools around the headquarters have been taking entrance examinations to vie for the limited seats.
“Since we operate in the district headquarters and have well-facilitated classrooms, we have seen a significant rise in the number of students in recent years,” said Binod Pandey, a member of the school management committee.
According to Gopal Shrestha, a teacher at the school, major reasons behind this trend include good SEE results and introduction of civil engineering as a vocational subject two years ago.
“Even though we are a public school, we have strict disciplinary rules, regular classes, sufficient infrastructures and necessary human resources. Since this has brought us on a par with good private schools, parents prefer our school to others due to the low tuition fees.” Shrestha added.
After being entitled as a “model school” by the High School Education Council (HSEC) this year, the school has been asked to prepare plans for the development of physical infrastructures and other resources.
“The council has asked us to prepare the best possible plan,” Principal Bista said. He has envisioned making the school a real model for other schools and plans to take suggestions from all stakeholders to prepare a good plan.
