Former Maoist rebel Apsara Simkhada, who gave birth to a baby just three days before SLC exams kicked off, has brushed aside all her pains and problems to get through the Iron Gate. Apsara´s passion for obtaining SLC certificates is just a tip of iceberg that unveils the former rebels´ crave for education. [break]
Of them, four women are appearing in the exams from Chaturmukhi Higher Secondary School while others are participating from Prithvi Higher Secondary School. A total of 119 women ex-rebels are appearing in the exams from the cantonment.
As a mother of a newly born baby, Apsara needs to regularly breastfeed her baby boy. Apart from it, she feels unavoidable pain caused by cesarean. But she says she is bold enough to endure all pains to prove that they are on a par with their male counterparts.
Maya Tamang, another examinee who gave birth to a baby just 20 days ago, says that holding a pen in exams and handling a gun in battlefield are alike. “I have replaced my gun with a pen,” she quipped.
The former women combatants had prepared themselves for the exams by studying one year in an open school set up in the Shaktikhor cantonment. “We provided an opportunity for former women combatants to have informal education with changing times,” Sandip Ghimire, coordinator of the school, said.
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