Two years ago, Phalebas Municipality in Parbat had enlisted Gahate Ambot Basic School on the school merger list, as the school lacked students and was suffering from a poor academic record. Two years hence the school has not only increased the student numbers but it has also improved the quality of teaching, thus avoiding the inevitable merger with another school. 

Today, Ghate Ambot Basic School is considered a ‘model school’ in the area. Its student numbers have more than tripled from 23 to 78 in two years.

To avoid the merger, the school’s headmaster and teachers had worked towards increasing the number of students by enhancing academic performance and introducing co-curricular and extra-curricular activities.

After the school adopted these new measures, people in the municipality started enrolling their children in the school.

“I had my children enrolled at a private school. But I decided to move them to Gahate Ambot, as the school has managed to become one of the best in the area,” said Ganga Kunwar, a local, who enrolled her three children in the school last academic year. “I am very happy with the school. My children are learning better than before.”

The school management and the teachers have spent the last two years working towards enhancing the quality of education and making the teaching/learning method effective, says Omkar Paudel, the school headmaster. 

The school has been providing additional two-hour tuition classes to help students with their studies. “The teachers are running additional classes every day. The school remains open from 9 am to 5 pm, except on Saturdays,” said Paudel.

The school celebrated its 40^th anniversary on Sunday when people’s representatives, guardians and other stakeholders came together to commend the school administration on the progress it made in such a short time.

“The students’ academic performance has justified the efforts of the teachers and the guardians. The school has come a long way from what it was two years ago,” said Padampani Sharma, mayor of Phalebas Municipality.

The municipality in September 2017 decided to merge 13 community schools, including Gahate Ambot School, in the municipality. Paudel, along with the school management committee chairman Chetnath Kunwar, had urged the municipality to give them a year to improve. The following academic year, the student number increased threefold.

Krishna Prasad Acharya, municipal education officer, said that Gahate Ambot Basic School now qualifies as a model school in the municipality.

“Based on the annual examination and regular monitoring, the school is found imparting quality education. The students are creative and are involved in various co and extra-curricular activities,” said Acharya.

The model school, however, has a shortage of teachers to cater to the increasing number of students. The school currently has a total of seven teachers.

“We need one teacher each for Mathematics and Science,” said Baburam Paudel, the chairman of the Teacher-Guardian Association. “For now, we have a volunteer teaching the subjects.”

“We still face a lot of challenges, but we will soon hire more teachers. Efforts are also on to initiate smart classes in the school under the guidance of the National Invention Centre,” said Paudel.