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News from Nepal: नेपाली खबरहरु
Students in Rukum. Photo: Smita.
Kathmandu, June 13, 2008- “We are in a dilemma and so are the students,” said Chandra Dev Chaudhari, a teacher from Shree Sahid Sukra High School, Sima, Rukum, explaining the plight caused by the lack of textbooks for this year’s session.
This year’s academic session started 2 months ago but grades 3, 9 and 10 have no books for proper instruction in different parts of the country.
Talking to USNepalOnline.Com, Chaudhary expressed the teachers’ concern. “We are worried. It will be difficult to complete the syllabus on time and that will hamper students’ ability to progress.” he said.
“For 9th and 10th graders it is the key year for preparing to take the School Leaving Certificate (SLC), the year that will define their future path. Without textbooks I don’t know how they will pass the SLC exam,” added Chaudhary anxiously.
Rukum, where the Maoist insurgency started, is one of the most rural and remote districts of governments. It takes nearly 5 days travel from the capitol Kathmandu to reach Sima, Rukum. Like many countryside areas of Nepal, Sima and its neighboring villages are untouched by any fundamental development infrastructures.
Indrabahadur Shrestha, a teacher from the neighboring village of Jhumlabang says “Unlike students from urban areas, our students do not have a favorable environment to study at home so they totally depend on school for their studying. They have no outside sources for knowledge as there is no library, and no other sources of information which makes them totally dependent on textbooks.”
“The unavailability of textbooks has created confusion among teachers, students and parents and infuriated them but there is little opportunity to express our need and anguish because there is no one to hear out our problems,” Shrestha added.
Guardians Association of Nepal (GAN) has been demanding suspension of the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) Secretary Bala Nanda Poudel and Executive Director of Janak Education Materials Center Limited (JEMCL). “We will continue our protest until these demands are met,” said President of GAN Suprabhat Bhandari.
Bhandari alleged that the textbook shortage was mainly due to commissions on textbooks and print-paper within JEMCL, the sole government body entrusted with publishing school textbooks. He stated, “Constituent Assembly (CA) polls is just a phony, its all about commission and their irresponsibility.”
He expressed his deep concern for the students of rural Nepal. "They are facing more problems as there are few outside sources for education. Not only this, production of textbooks is one thing while delivery of textbooks to rural places like Rukum is another thing. MoES and JEMCL are not taking this seriously, and are thus creating a mass national level massacre,” he further added.
MoES clarified JEMCL could not print the textbooks on time this year as its printers were busy with the ballot papers for the CA poll for almost a month.
Managing Director of JEMCL, Ram Prasad Sharma advised that publication of the books will be completed within Jesth month. “Then, within a week, textbooks will reach every part of the country. We have been publishing textbooks and sending them immediately to different parts of the country,” he added.
“The main problem was created by a lack of print paper and load shedding. Terai protests and shortage of lubricants for paper production also played a vital role in delaying the textbook production,” said Sharma.
Sharma stated that textbooks printed in India are being distributed to some areas and 35 private presses in Kathmandu are publishing textbooks for JEMCL to rush the supply.
MoES gave 15-days of holiday for school children from 27th May to tackle the book shortage. It had promised to provide books by 10th June. However, schools re-opened in 3rd June but still 2,25,00,000 numbers of books are yet to be published.
This sluggish rate of textbook printing has created frustration and enraged teachers, parents and students resulting in protests in many locations. Students from Far Western regions to Eastern regions are taking their demand for textbooks to the street. In many regions schools are closed, agitated students have vandalized buses and other transportation means, shut down local businesses and obstructed movement of traffic along parts of the East –West highway.
-Smita Magar in Kathmandu
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