Fifty-eight children from Raksiring, Kavrang, and Tarbang settlements, of Kaule VDC in Chitwan district, have been deprived of education after their school buildings were destroyed by the 2015 earthquake.

Many children of school- going age have no opportunity of learning how to read and write because the earthquake-flattened schools have not been rebuilt. Even those children who were going to school have discontinued their studies. 

Chitwan was declared a fully literate district only two years ago; now there is a risk of the distinction becoming a short-lived affair. The District Education Office has made no effort till date to ensure the children of Raksiring, Kavrang, and Tarbang have the opportunity to go to school.  

Sanumaya Chepang, a mother of six boys and two girls, said the nearest school is a three hours walk from her settlement, at Gairang in neighbouring Dhading district.   

“There used to be a primary school nearby, now it is gone. I want to send my children to school but it is too far away from here,” she said.

With no school to go to, the children have been helping their parents in farms and household works.

Most of the children who have been deprived from going to school in Kaule VDC are from the minority Chepang community, said Ramesh Rasaili, headmaster of Rastriya Secondary School at Hattibang. 

“There is no way those children will get to go to school unless the concerned authorities build one near their settlements. The children are not going to walk for several hours through a difficult terrain just so they could go to school,” he said. 

District Education Officer Govinda Prasad Aryal said he was informed about the issue just two months earlier and that he was planning to build a school near their settlements.

“The children will have a school to go from the next academic session which will begin in April,” he said.