To retain students, Bajura school starts hostel

By Sher Bahadur Sarki, Bajura, Sept. 5: Siddheshwari Basic School at Budhinanda Municipality-9 in Dapka, Bajura district, has started operating as a residential school.

Since the main occupation of the municipality inhabitants in wards 7, 8, 9, and 10 is rearing sheep and goats, they have the tradition of going to the lowlands with their livestock during winter and retuning home after the onset of summer. 

Tulabahudar Rawat, principal of the school, said that locals take their children with them to lowlands, so no child comes to school throughout the winter. 

In an effort to make the children attend school even during winter, the school has started providing hostel facilities, he added. 

Principal Rawat said that after operating the school as a residential from this year, the children will be able to attend school regularly even in winter and that there would be no disruption in their education. 

A local at Budhinanda Municipality-7 Tek Bahadur Thapa (Bhote) said that all people in the area are in the business of rearing sheep and goats. He said that during winter, when the entire region is covered in snow, food is in short supply and so livestock face a hard time surviving. That compels people to take their livestock to lowlands to graze, along with their children. Thapa added that this year, the school has arranged a hostel for the children, so they do not have to take their children with them.  “From now on, we can take our goats and sheep to the lowlands leaving our children at school and their education would not be hampered,” he said.

Galbo Thapa Bhote, a fourth grader at the school, said, "We used to travel with our parents as there would be no one to look after us.”

Most schools in the eastern part of the district see no student in the winter months; they temporarily live in Triveni, Gaumul, Budhiganga, Khaptad Chededah, and neighbouring districts of Achham in the lower regions to rear sheep and goats.  There are 112 students, including 65 girls and 27 boys, in the school, which provides education from classes one to five, of which 53 do not attend school in winter.

Chairman of the school management committee, Prem Sinh Gurung, said for those children descending to lowlands with their parents, the school will arrange residential facilities starting this year.

Janak Bohara, Mayor of Budhinanda Municipality, said that the school is being operated as a residential school to ensure that no child is deprived of education.