School buildings

Anand Bhairab Lower Secondary School - Buildings

The school was built by the community and has been extended and at the present time (2002) it caters for children from Grade 1 to Grade 8. The subjects taught are Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Nepali, English and vocational subjects. All grades are taught the same subjects and the teachers move to the classes. School starts at 10am and finishes at 4pm. There are 7 periods each day. In a Government School books are supplied by the Government for girls, but after Grade 5 boys have to buy their own books, which means that in most classes have larger numbers of girls.

The school year begins in April after the final examinations. There seems to be exams at the end of each term, followed by a holiday of 15 days in April, October and December. The December or winter holiday is longer (Dec 15th to Jan 15th). There is a School Leaving Certificate (SLC) at the end of Year 10, but the children from this school would need to go to another school to study for SLC.

This holiday system seems to vary from year to year and the areas beyond the Kathmandu Valley have different holidays and some schools within the Valley follow a different system.

Rough plan of the school to show the layout. (not to scale)

The buildings near the entrance gate were built first and this is where grades 4,5 & 6 are taught. Like all the other rooms they are small with limited lighting and only desks and a blackboard.

The main section of the school, which houses the younger grades has provision for a second storey. The stairs and some of the walls of the first building have been completed. Funds are required to continue with the building.

The toilets are no longer functioning properly, and this is a possible project, although it was not greeted with much enthusiasm so it is not seen as an immediate need by the teachers. More research is needed into composting toilets and education about waste disposal, if we want to contribute to the improvement of the toilets.

The Headmaster's office was a corner in the staff room, which was a room with a table and chairs and two cupboards.

The teachers requested money for a teacher's salary - $A2000 per annum, which is probably paying for a fully qualified teacher. There are eight teachers and if one is ill each class has to spend one period during the day without a teacher. The qualifications of the teachers also varies.

Teachers
Back:
Janarjan Lamichhare (Science)
Pralad Bista (English)
Shyam Prd Acharya (Social Studies)
Krishna Murari Neupane (English)
Bishwa Nath Lamichhane (Principal - Pre-vocational Subjects)
Front:
Sushila Dhungel (Mathematics)
Kunja Poudel (Social Studies)
Samjhana Bhetwal (Nepali)

They also wanted money to complete the second storey of the school. This they estimated would cost $A6000, but a third of that would complete part of the building and provide an extra classroom. It is very difficult to know what the cost would be, using voluteer labour. In the village a house was being built and it appeared as though many people were helping.

What is needed:

Money for a teacher's salary
Money for the completion of the second storey
In the future the toilets could be improved.

This information was gathered through an interpretor and may not be accurate.