More than 80 students crammed in single class

By Our Correspondent,Humla, July 27: It has been found that more than 80 children are studying in the single Early Child Development (ECD) class of a school in Humla district. 

Due to the lack of classrooms in Panchmukhi Basic School of Thehe in Simkot Rural Municipality-2, children are forced to study in a crammed classroom.

Lalu Bhandari, a guardian, said that the children were facing problems in learning as they had to study sitting in a crowded classroom.  

According to him, it is normal to have many children in the school as  Thehe is a big village in the district. “It is necessary to manage the ECD classrooms for the large number of small students,” he added.  

Laxman Bohora, a teacher at the school, said that the number of children in the ECD class in the school is high, but due to the lack of classrooms, the school is forced to keep over 80 students in one room.

Ninety-nine children have enrolled on the ECD class in the school, said Bohora. “But only 80 to 85   children come to the school every day, and it has been a big problem to keep those children organised.”

Only one teacher has been arranged for ECD. He said that due to the problem of classrooms and teachers for ECD, no solution was found to the problem.

Non-gazetted fifth class officer  Krishna Prasad Acharya of  Education, Youth and Sports Department of Simkot Rural Municipality,  said that as many children are studying in ECD class in Panchmukhi School, there is a problem in running teaching-learning activities smoothly.

He said that according to the rules, only 40 students should be kept in one class in the Himalayan district, but this rule has not been implemented in Humla.

Last year, 117 children were admitted to the ECD class of the school, and this year their number dropped to 99.  The school requires at least two classrooms to manage the ECD students, he said.

Acharya further said it was difficult to manage the extra classes for ECD as they were running the ECD classes according to the existing facilities, not based on needs. 

He also said that it was necessary to change the present practice to make the teaching-learning activities in ECD classes effective and fruitful. 

Altogether 26  ECD classes are being conducted in the rural municipality.  Some of them have only five students while others have seven children, but in the school of Ward No. 2, there is pressure of students as around 100 students have enrolled on ECD class, said Acharya