Empty schools In Karnali

A recent study has revealed that schools in Karnali remain open only 137 days a year at the most. The study conducted by the Teachers’ Union with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) sent shocking waves at the highest government level and among educationists as it said that pupils remain absent for most days as they gallivant looking for jobs to earn that extra money to sustain their family. Three key reasons were identified for lack of attendance. First, schools invariably remain closed for 35 days because students go in search of Yarchagumbas in the mountains. Second, recurrent local festivals, farming responsibility and extreme weather conditions too keep the students away from schools. And it is said that teachers themselves go for prolonged holidays and seldom take regular classes.



What is happening in Karnali schools is completely in violation of the Education Act, 1971, which has made it mandatory for all schools to run classes at least 220 days a year. Moreover, it also violates the School Sector Reform Program which says that each teacher must spend at least 1000 hours in classroom in addition to 500 hours in other extra-curricular activities. At primary level, teachers are expected to complete 800 hours minimum class time. Teachers who are taking undue advantage and cheating their own profession must not be spared. The government must take prompt and stern action and penalize those teachers found to be absent for a longer time. At the same time, those parents who are encouraging their children to go in search of jobs instead of attending schools should know that they are playing with the future of their young ones and that they are pushing them into the same darkness that surrounds their lives today.



However, much blame cannot be thrust upon the poor and the helpless people of the long-neglected Karnali who have been forced to live in the vicious circle of poverty from where there seems no escape whatsoever. Thus, the state has to invest in terms of resources, time and energy in uplifting the socio-economic status of this backward region altogether. Unless the people’s real and basic security needs – food, employment, health – are not addressed and taken care of, small children of poor families will keep suffering and their right to education is bound to be compromised in the bargain. The success of the government’s slogan of “education for all” is a far cry unless it works to fulfill the basic necessities of the poor and the vulnerable and unless it addresses their right to survival first and foremost.

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