Students from grade five to seven between the ages of 10-14 years in Bal Mandir Secondary School of Lumle VDC fled the school hostel and have currently been taking shelter at Urban Development Training Center of Nadipur, Pokhara.
Of the 68 students, 50 are boys and 18 girls. They are from 22 districts across the country. They said they fled the school hostel unable to stand poor treatment. They said the teachers discriminated against them and only favored local students.[break]
“The teachers treat us poorly as we don´t belong to Kaski. We fled the hostel as we couldn´t tolerate them any longer,” said a seventh grader Surchana Pudasaini. Pudasaini is originally from Aarughati of Gorkha.
Surchana also said that they had been receiving poor treatment for the last three years. “We frequently complained about ill-treatment to us to the school principal but he tuned a deaf ear to our complaints. As we did not see any signs for things to improve, we decided to flee the hostel,” she said.
Students also complained that the teachers used foul language with them. They said they were give stale food and there was no proper accommodation arrangement for them in the hostel. “The school was also reluctant to provide medical treatment when someone fell ill,” said Surchana. The students said that they will not return to the school though their final exams are just around the corner.
The government had decided to develop the school as a model school under Public Educational Cooperative Program in the district three years ago. Under the program, 68 students were selected from different district of the country and all their expenses have been funded by the government.
However, Dayaram Subedi, principal of the school denied the allegations made by the students. On the contrary, he accused hostel warden Krishna Tiwari of conspiring to bring down the school´s reputation by enticing the students to flee the hostel.
Meanwhile, president of the school management committee Bishnu Bahadur Dware held the teachers responsible for the incident. “I see fault in teachers as they could not handle the students properly,” opined Dware. He said he would take initiatives to return the students to school. “We will conduct a probe and punish those found guilty.”
Currently, 300 students are enrolled in the school.
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