Shortage of school textbooks in Karnali

By Rajani Yogi

Surkhet, Nov. 2: Election materials including ballot papers have been sent to the Himalayan districts of Karnali Province for the upcoming elections but no textbooks have reached there even six months after the new academic session began.

Children are forced to go to school empty-handed because of the government inability to supply textbooks to the students. The textbooks have not reached Dolpa, Humla and Kalikot districts. 

While the government has successfully dispatched the ballot boxes, ballot papers, clothes and swastika stamps to the remote districts for election, it has not been serious to supply the poor students with required textbooks. 

There is a shortage of textbooks in Kalikot as well. Most of the community schools of Narharinath Rural Municipality have not received the textbooks of some subjects. 

Durga Lal Neupane, head of the Education Department of the Rural Municipality, said that not all children had access to books of all subjects. They face problem of textbook shortage every year because the books are transported through a contract.

It has been six months since the new academic session began, but the students of some schools in Humla have still not received textbooks. At Mansarovar Secondary School in Simkot Rural Municipality-6, textbooks were delivered in installments. Even now, some students are left empty-handed even though the books have reached the schools as the books were not enough to meet the demands. 

Amar Bahadur Shahi, headmaster of the school, said, “Although the school is running regularly, there is a problem in teaching-learning activities in lack of textbooks. This year too, the textbooks did not arrive in time and students are getting confused. A few books reached Humla only after the end of the quarterly exams. They are also insufficient.”

The teachers of various schools have said that teaching and learning activities have become haphazard for the past three years. Although books were not available when COVID-19 hit the country, the government seemed to have failed to supply them even in normal time like this year.  

Krishna Prasad Acharya, technical assistant at the Education Branch, informed that textbooks have not reached all classes of community schools in Simkot Rural Municipality.

In Adanchuli Rural Municipality, not all students have textbooks. Ransur Rokaya, head of the education department of the rural municipality, said that due to the negligence of the textbook transporters and sellers, the textbooks did not reach the hands of the students. Only half of the students in the rural municipality have received textbooks so far. 

In previous years too, the textbooks did not reach the Himalayan districts of Karnali including Humla in time. 

Tularam Pandey, President of Karnali Province, National Campaign for Education (NCE), said that due to the negligence on the part of the government, the educational situation has become a mess in the rural districts. “Election ballots arrive in time, but textbooks don’t,” he said.

Dhan Bahadur KC, the chief of Janak Education Materials Centre of Karnali Province, said that textbooks have reached many districts, and a slight shortage was noticed in a few classes. There is a shortage of textbooks of grade eight in Dailekh, Kalikot and Surkhet. Textbooks have reached almost all other districts. “This year, this situation has come as such due to delay in printing the textbooks,” he said.

Sher Bahadur Khadka, the owner of Bihani Book Shop, said that there is a lack of textbooks because of the negligence of Janak Education Materials Centre. “Still, the students of grade VIII are unable to get the book of Social Education and English,” he added.