Children from yak herding families enroll in residential school

By Chitra Mizar,Sindhupalchowk, Apr. 3: Twenty-seven children from the remote Tembathan village in Jugal Rural Municipality-3, Sindhupalchowk, have moved from yak herding settlements to a residential school. 

The rural municipality has facilitated residential education in the remote village, allowing the children to attend school.

In the past, the children from the area were unable to attend the local school because their parents had to take them along with them to high-altitude yak and sheep herding settlements. Leaving young children alone at home was not an option, so families would bring them to the pastures, depriving them of formal education.

However, after Resham Syangbo, the Chairperson of the Rural Municipality arranged residential facilities at Tembathan Basic School, 27 children facing this challenge are now able to study. Currently, 86 students are enrolled in the school, with a total of 93 admissions recorded.

With the availability of residential education, parents have stopped taking their children to yak and sheep herding sites. As the school provides food, accommodation and education, parents are now leaving their children at the school hostel instead. 

Previously, the lack of childcare forced parents to take their children to the highlands, but now, they willingly enroll them in the hostel, Syangbo said.

Chief Administrative Officer Lok Bahadur BK said that an annual grant of Rs. 500,000 has been allocated for the residential hostel facilities for children from the yak herding families. 

Local Lakpa Sherpa expressed that parents now feel relieved as their children, who were previously deprived of schooling, can study while staying at the hostel.

Ranjana Tamang, Principal of Tembathan Basic School, said that the children, now residing in the hostel instead of the yak pastures, are enthusiastic about learning. She also said that such programmes are helping children, who were previously excluded, have access to education.