However, in and despite these dark hours, students still manage to study or so they say.
Melody Mulmi, a student at United Academy (UA) currently preparing for her higher secondary board exams, says she manages somehow. “The load shedding does effect our study but then you need to learn to make a schedule for yourself,” she says, “You try and study during the afternoon and at night you’ve got to study even in candlelight, because the battery in your emergency lights will have also run out.”
In March, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) reduced the load shedding hours from 14 to 12, providing what they called two hours of relief for students appearing for the School Leaving Certificate (S.L.C) Exams. Whether it actually made a difference is anybody’s guess.
“Power cuts are already a nuisance for your daily life,” laments Ellina Dangol, an M.B.B.S student at Nepal Medical College, “Add to that, when you have to prepare long reports and presentation, you have to run around to get your documents printed and filed on time. That’s happened to me quite often.”
For school kids like Sonam Lama, 14, getting their daily homework done is also a challenge. Lama, who recently completed her grade nine examinations, begins her day around 7, preparing herself and her younger brother for their school.
They reach home from school around 5 pm by the time they eat, play around for even half an hour or sit down to study, it already starts to get dark she says.
“In the morning our school starts at 10 so if we wake up early it gives us some time to get our assignment done. Trying to do your homework daily at night in dim lights can strain our eyes.”
Some schools like Mega School at Purnachandi in Lalitpur have tried to minimize assignments for the students considering the heavy power cuts. Jharana Sharma, academic in- charge at the school says that power cut have been a problem for all and it has to be considered for the sake of the students as well.
“Many may not have inverters at home and we often get these excuses that they couldn’t complete their assignments because of power cuts, some of which are legitimate,” she says. The school therefore has formulated a rule that homework for only four periods out of eight are assigned to children and most of the course study is covered during school hours.
“For grade 10 students who have to prepare for their S.L.C, we have to give them extra attention,” she says, “So we have them on board at school during their preparation time and arrange for a generator so that power cuts don’t hamper their studies.”
How far can generators and lesser assignments solve the problem for students all around the country though?
As eastern Nepal, currently facing a black out for almost an entire 24 hours, deplores on the energy crisis even as people padlock and protest in front of NEA offices, the students still manage to study through the dark hours of power cuts. That is despite the strain it causes on their eyes or on their full potential.
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