Turning schools into police stations, that seems to be the way things are going in Rahjena VDC of Banke. Gyankunj Secondary School has been removed and replaced with Maheswori Armed Police Division's DIG Office. There have been protests to save the only secondary school in this village. "We pleaded with them but they kept building the police station here," says Shanker Sharma, chairman of the school's management committee. "We even went to see the prime minister in Kathmandu, but we were told the priority is security not schooling," says Dipak Kumar Malla, school principal.

Two years ago, the locals worked together to build the school in an abandoned government building. In just two years, the number of students rose from 25 to 400. They happily pay Rs 150 as monthly fees as the annual fund of Rs 50,000 from the VDC office is not sufficient to meet the annual school expenses of Rs 700,000. Even during the construction phase of the police station, the Maoists bombed and destroyed one of the buildings. The armed police DIG office building has occupied not just the school but also moved the VDC office, post office and a centre for the handicapped.