With the official Dashain holiday coming to an end, many schools are set to resume teaching and learning activities. A large majority of schools, however, seem to have extended the holiday until the Tihar and Chhath festivals. Even the schools that planned to resume classes are not in a position to immediately restart teaching and learning activities, as the floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall in late September have left hundreds of public schools damaged across the country. Although no official data is immediately available, it is said that more than 150 schools have been damaged due to the landslides and floods. The concerned government bodies may not have felt an urgency to repair the school buildings as the Dashain holiday followed immediately after the devastation caused by the floods and landslides. But now, all three tiers of government must work closely to expedite the reconstruction of those damaged schools so that children’s education is not disrupted.
Most schools start classes after celebrating Dashain, Tihar and Chhath festivals. The course content must be completed by March, which requires schools to run their classes smoothly after the festive holidays. If the damaged schools are not repaired with urgency, the courses cannot be completed, affecting the education of thousands of children. Bureaucratic process in our country is often lengthy and takes a long time to implement work on the ground. We hope the concerned government agencies have already collected the data of schools affected by the recent floods and landslides, but the process gets prolonged when the government awards tenders. This process can be shortened if all three tiers of government take appropriate measures to expedite the repair and reconstruction process with urgency. It is necessary to make arrangements to resume teaching and learning activities after Chhath, even if temporary arrangements are required.
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Public schools often serve as shelters, especially during natural disasters. Therefore, it is important to choose safer locations where there is no risk of disaster and where there is enough open space when rebuilding schools. Similarly, schools must be made accessible to children with physical disabilities. All schools could be rebuilt more efficiently if the federal government allocates necessary funds for construction; the provincial government prepares the design and cost estimates and the local government implements the work. School management committees can be made responsible for overseeing construction works. We look forward to seeing the government take swift action to ensure that classes resume in all schools in full after the festive holidays.
