In lack of proper classrooms, students at Dirgha Pradip Higher Secondary School in Sittal Pati VDC-9 have been battling frigid conditions to pursue their studies.While some schools in the district have managed to put together makeshift classrooms with bamboo and corrugated sheets, conditions at Dirgha Pradip are dismal, with classes being held inside plastic tents.
Head of the school, Shankhar Prasad Uprety, said that the school building suffered severe damage during the quake and reconstruction would take some time.
According to Uprety, many organizations had given assurances of help to rebuild the school, but no one has actually turned up to support the construction work for even temporary structures.
"More than 50 organizations pledged to help," Uprety said. "But the conditions facing the students remain pitiable."
He expressed concern that declining temperatures will mean the students will suffer even more in the coming days.
The district education office (DEO) informed that there were no immediate plans to put up temporary structures that can protect against the winter.
"Such decisions are taken at the central level and we haven't yet been informed about any construction plan," said Durga Prasad Kafle, school inspector at the DEO.
According to Kafle, some local organizations and INGOs have built temporary learning centers after the DEO requested them for help.
But as the weather gets chillier, teachers have started to complain about the difficulties they face at the temporary centers.
Pashupati Koirala, a teacher from Bhuwaneshwari VDC, said, "There is no place to hang up black boards inside the temporary centers. The noise from outside is quite disturbing as well."
The catastrophic earthquakes of April and May destroyed a total of 134 classrooms at various schools and damaged 1,277 others, according to the DEO.
Sub-engineer at the DEO, Indrajit Shah, informed that 85 school toilets, 35 drinking-water facilities and 162 child development centers were also destroyed during the quakes.
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