Until four years ago, the Shivalaya Secondary School, located at Chilkhaya in ward 9 of Tilaghupha Municipality in Kalikot district, would wrap up the annual examination by mid-November, and the new academic session started in mid-February.

But this year, the annual examination concluded much later—in the second week of March—and the new academic session began with a student enrollment campaign on Sunday.

Saraswati Basic School, located in Bhattadi in ward 9 of Tilaghupha, also reopened on Sunday in line with the municipality’s school calendar, which aligns with the federal government’s new academic calendar.

Before the Covid pandemic, heavy snowfall in Chilkhaya and Bhattadi would force both schools to remain shut down for four months, starting from mid-October, and follow academic calendars different from the hill and tarai districts.

After the pandemic, the educational calendar of this mountain district has changed. For nearly a decade, the government had been running academic sessions from mid-March to mid-November in the mountain districts such as Mugu, Dolpa, and Kalikot in the Karnali Province considering the heavy snowfall and extreme cold starting from mid-November.

“Due to the extreme cold in the mountainous region, the government used to make special arrangements and had different educational calendars. After the pandemic, the educational calendar had to be changed,” said Shankar Prasad Upadhya, mayor of Tilaghupha Municipality.

According to the Janak Education Materials Centre, textbooks have already reached all local units of Karnali Province this year.

“Last year, we were unable to deliver the textbooks to all the schools because we could not print the required number of textbooks on time. The delays in printing were caused by local units delaying payments, businessmen not shipping textbooks promptly, and schools not making timely purchases,” said Bhairavbabu Pant, head of the Janak Education Materials Centre, Karnali Province.

According to Pant, the centre started necessary preparations in the third week of March to send the textbooks, and the books reached all the schools within two weeks. Similarly, the centre had set a goal of distributing about 25,000 sets of textbooks from grades 5 to 10 in the province.

“The centre had listed 89 bookstores for the distribution of the textbooks across the province, and all the textbooks have been purchased by the stores as per the target. Most of the schools still have surplus textbooks from last year’s purchase, and we are completely prepared to fulfill any requests for additional textbooks,” said Pant.

Bhim Bahadur Karki, head of Education Development and Coordination Unit Humla, said that in Humla, some local units have reopened schools and started conducting classes since mid-February, but the original plan was to open schools and conduct classes in the new academic session starting Sunday in a coordinated manner.

“We have started textbooks distribution, scholarship procedures, and other administration from Sunday. But it has been found that some local units in the colder regions have created their own educational calendars as per their convenience, but there has not been any official announcement from them,” said Karki.

Kamal Shahi, a teacher at Mahabai Basic School located in ward 4 of Mahabai Rural Municipality, Kalikot, said that although there were some problems in the beginning due to the change in the academic calendar, now conducting classes will get easier.

“If there was no Covid epidemic, classes would have started in mid-February, but now that almost all schools are following the same calendar, it has become easy for the teachers of neighbouring Dailekh, Surkhet, and other districts to conduct educational activities in a coordinated way. Because the educational calendars of all the schools are the same, students of one local unit can easily shift to schools in other local units,” said Shahi.

“Currently, students of one local unit have the chance to study in the schools of other municipalities, for example, Mahabai of Kalikot and Mahabu Rural Municipality of Dailekh, which are neighbours. Several students of Mahabai have shifted to schools in Mahabu. Earlier, there would be issues with student migration and temporary enrollment in other schools due to different academic calendars,” Shahi added.

Dipa Hamal, acting director of the Education Development Directorate, Karnali Province, said that various educational and administrative problems were solved when the educational session was conducted in an integrated manner.

“Due to different academic calendars in different regions, it was very difficult to conduct educational activities across neighbouring districts in an integrated manner. It was difficult to manage textbooks, provide scholarships, and conduct various activities such as teachers’ training. But things are much easier now due to a unified calendar across the province,” said Hamal.

According to her, local units are responsible for smooth functioning of public schools under their jurisdictions. Previously they used to devise different calendars based on geographical considerations and this caused numerous problems. “But this year is different because all local units of the province follow the same academic calendar,” she said.

According to the Education Development Directorate in Birendranagar, there are 3,013 public schools in Karnali Province. Among them, 2,209 are basic-level schools and 804 are secondary-level schools.

She noted that even the schools in high-altitude areas are following the same academic calendars this year.

“There have been rumours circulating about some schools in high-altitude settlements starting student enrollment campaigns in February, but there has been no official announcement or confirmation by the schools. As per our records, all the schools in the province started the student enrollment campaigns on Sunday,” said Hamal.