Near Darbar Marg is the dormitory for the Tin Dhara Pakshala Sanskrit School. The institution has a glorious socio-political history because this is where students first raised slogans against the Rana regime. The tradition of government support for free food and lodging for students of Sanskrit is continuing. Yet, when you see it today from the street, it looks less like a school and more like a shopping centre. Its location near the business hub of Darbar Marg has been a curse for the school.
The April 2015 earthquake badly damaged the historic Darbar School in the heart of Kathmandu next to Rani Pokhari. The school was opened by the Ranas to educate their relatives, but eventually others also got the chance. It was the first-ever community school in Nepal but despite its cultural importance, it is still in ruins two years after the earthquake.
At a recent meeting about repairing the building, someone reportedly said: “Let’s build a shopping centre here and allow the school to run in a small corner from the income.” It may make business sense to put forth a proposal like that, but what are the views of society, the community, the education sector and the state about this? What should they be thinking?
Another historic institution of learning is Juddhodaya High School in Thamel. Because the neighbourhood is now Kathmandu’s tourist centre, it has been converted into a business centre. Even if you were right outside of it, you wouldn’t know that a school is there.
Tribhuvan University has had much of its property converted to commercial use, other buildings are in the process of being turned into shopping areas. This is a gross misuse of land that ws given to the University by the government and other donors for higher education.
These are just a few examples of how property owned by government schools has become prime real estate. The schools have been reduced to a tiny portion of the property, and the rest of the land turned into malls. We have to ask ourselves: who do a school’s assets belong to? Is it for the school committee to do as it likes? Is it for the students? Is it for the teachers? If there are no students what will the teachers do?
A school should not just be classrooms. It should include extra-curricular activities in playgrounds for physical activities. A school should not sell off its property at the expense of the educational or physical development of its students. The school grounds in the city centre provided shelter for thousands of families. It is time for the school management committees to think about how to reconstruct schools after the earthquake while retaining the open spaces.