Buildings, land of merged schools left unused in Lalbandi

 BY JANARJAN KHATRI,sarlahi, June 13: Buildings of three schools in Sarlahi’s Lalbandi Municipality are now lying unused after they were merged with nearby schools due to a lack of students.

A meeting of the municipal Education Committee on June 5 decided to merge Janata Primary School of Jharjhara in Ward No. 15 with Jalakanya Primary School in Bharighadh Samara of the same ward, Indrawati Primary School of Ward No. 15 with Bhadragaya Secondary School in Satbhaiya, and Surodaya Pramary School Tikaghadhasaliya of Ward No. 22 with Faud Singh Secondary School in Raniganj.

The buildings and land of the merged schools have remained unused, and the local ward offices have been asked to look after and protect them.

 Laxmi Shivakoti, head of the municipality’s education branch, said that the land and property will belong to the municipality, and the ward offices will be responsible for their care.

Among the three, the condition of Jharjhara Primary School is the worst. The roof of the school was blown off by a strong wind some time ago, making it unfit for use. On the other hand, the buildings of the Katharbot and Tikaghadhasaliya schools are still in good shape.

A resident from Katharbot said he was heartbroken by the sudden closure of the school, which had been running for 30 years. He’s worried that the four buildings of the school would fall into disrepair when no one uses them.

Gorakh Bahadur Bal, the ward chairman of Lalbandi-15, said the school had to be closed because there were simply no students. He admitted that taking care of the now-unused school buildings would be a new challenge.

Ward 15 of Lalbandi Municipality has nine community schools. Jharjhara’s primary school had no student at all while Katharbot’s school had just eight students, and Tikaghadhasaliya 27.

Those students have now started going to the nearby merged schools. Teachers and staff from the closed schools have also been transferred and reassigned to other schools in the municipality.

The Education Committee said that if the number of students increases again in the future, according to standards set by the Ministry of Education, the closed schools will reopen.

In addition, two more schools with low student numbers will also be merged. Shiswa Primary School in Jabdi (Lalbandi-3) and classes 4 and 5 of Raniganj Primary School (Lalbandi-17) will be merged with Manapurna Secondary School in Jabdi and Kalinjor Secondary School in Raniganj, respectively.