KAPILDEV KHANAL

For the past three years, students from Gyandfedi in Nuwakot district have been repeating fourth grade, because no school in the region offers classes beyond the fourth standard. In the absence of further schooling, the children are forced to remain in the same class year after year or risk being trafficked to India. Citing the shortage of students, the district education office had revoked Ghayankfedi Primary School' permit to run classes up to fifth grade in 1985. Another school, Indrayani Primary, is in a far worse condition where the principal has been missing for the past three years and where teachers are regularly absent.

Even though the government had allocated 1.7 billion rupees as the education budget for Nuwakot between 2008 and 2012, schools have shown no signs improvements. The District Education Office plans on spending a further 18 million rupees to build new infrastructure during the 2011-2012 fiscal year. But locals are not sure how this fund will help resolve the turmoil the schools in Ghyanfedi and surrounding areas find themselves in.