Basanta Rai, a 16-year-old girl from ward 10 of Halesi Tuwachung Municipality, is studying in grade 12 at the Saraswati Secondary School in the same ward. Rai, who comes from a working-class family, paid nearly Rs3,500 as an annual fee to the school in grade 11. She is now excited about her further studies as she doesn’t have to pay any fee to study in grade 12 because the municipality has implemented a free education scheme in the community schools within the municipality from this year.

“After the implementation of the free education plan, it has put a big smile on the faces of the students of the municipality,” she said. “Now parents of students like me don’t have to worry about the monthly or annual fees while we can fully concentrate on our studies.”

Since May 15, 2022, Halesi Tuwachung Municipality has been providing free education up to grade 10 in all 12 community schools in the municipality. In the current academic session, which started on May 23, the municipality extended the free education scheme to grades 11 and 12 as well, so the students who passed Secondary Education Examination (SEE) recently don’t have to pay fees to continue their higher studies. The municipality is the only local unit in Khotang offering free education up to grade 12, according to officials.

Minisha Rai, a 15-year-old girl from ward 11 of Halesi Tuwachung, passed her SEE this year from Saraswati Secondary School and has joined grade 11 at the same school. Minisha did not have to pay any fee in grade 10, but was a little worried about the annual fees for grades 11 and 12 and education materials since she belongs to a working-class family.

After hearing that the municipality has made education up to grade 12 completely free, she felt a bit relieved. Minisha said that she is very happy to continue her higher studies at the same school without paying any fees.

“This plan of the municipality will give students from poor economic backgrounds, especially girls, an opportunity to complete their higher studies,” Minisha said. “Some parents with poor economic conditions still don’t send their daughters to school after SEE, and this new plan of the municipality seems to change that fact soon.”

According to Padma Bahadur Karki, head of the education unit at Halesi Tuwachung Municipality, the free education scheme is part of the local unit’s plan to encourage children to continue their studies.

Bimala Rai, the mayor, said the free schooling scheme has been implemented under the municipality’s ‘Examination Management and Zero Fee Implementation Procedure 2079’.

According to the municipal records, there are 12 secondary-level community schools in the municipality, and among them, 10 provide higher secondary education. Now all of them provide free education.

"So far, our free education scheme until grade 10 has been pretty successful, and we expect the extension of the scheme will help better the educational status of the municipality," said Bimala.

According to Karki, the 10 community schools providing completely free education up to grade 12 are Malika Devi Secondary School in ward 1, Chyasmitar Secondary School in ward 3, Laxmi Secondary School in ward 4, Durchim Secondary School in the ward 5, Pipaldada Devsthan Secondary School in ward 6, Mahendrodaya Secondary School in ward 7, Bulapanthe Secondary School in ward 8, Janata Secondary School in ward 9, Saraswati Secondary School in ward 10, and Jyoti Secondary School in ward 11 of the municipality.

Karki said free education, which started this year, has ended the obligation to pay an annual fee ranging from Rs3500 to Rs6,000 to study in grades 11 and 12. In the last academic session, there were 317 students in grades 11 and 12 in the municipality.

"For some people, the fees might be insignificant, but for the students from working-class families, it’s a big issue. And many students stop studying especially after passing the SEE due to the costs involved. Besides the fees, students also needed to buy books, notebooks and other stationery materials. Now the students can forget about the admission and tuition fees," said Bimala.

Karki said that admissions are still going on, so they don’t have the data on how many students have been enrolled in grade 11, but she hopes the number of students in grade 11 will increase this academic session compared to last year. "This year, 383 students passed SEE from different community schools in the municipality," he added.