In Dang, local units have started a movement to reform the local education system.

As part of this initiative, Tulsipur Sub-metropolis has started to merge community schools whereas Rapti Rural Municipality has started to provide primary education free of cost.

At the 54^th executive meeting of the sub-metropolis, it was decided that schools would have an Early Childhood Development Centre instead of classes (grade one up to grade five). Mukunda Rijal, an official at the Education Section, said that the Early Childhood Development Centre will run regularly. And according to him, 35 schools have decided to implement the centre, which will be teaching students in the English language.

The sub-metropolis is also preparing to adjust the number for teachers in each school as per the number of students, as there are some schools that have too many students and too few teachers and vice versa. The number of students in the majority of the schools in the area is below 100.

Bhaskar Raj Gautam, chief at the Education Section of the sub-metropolis, said that they have started to identify the schools that have few students. “We cannot keep providing a salary to teachers,” said Gautam, adding that teachers who are currently teaching in schools with few students will be transferred to schools where teachers are less and students aplenty.

According to the data of the Education Section, 58 teachers have already been transferred to other schools in the last academic year.

Gautam said that they have also been moving forward with the concept of forming a “mega-school”, a merger of a number of community schools. There are 83 community schools in total in the sub-metropolis. According to Gautam, the plan is to merge schools and limit the number of schools in the Sub Metropolis to 30.

Ghana Shyam Pandey, chief at the sub-metropolis, said, “Our plan is to cancel classes and merge schools to cut expenses. We have decided to take the decision following many field studies.” He also added that they are going to pass the education act to roll out the campaign.

Meanwhile, Rapti Rural Municipality has started to provide primary education free of cost. Numananda Subedi, chairman of the rural municipality, said that they have been spending Rs 11.1 million for the salary and allowances of teachers (who were appointed through the private fund of the schools) every year.

Subedi said, “The students at the primary level are studying free of cost after the local unit provided the salary and allowance to the teachers who have been appointed through the private fund of the schools. Because of this, the dropout rate has reduced.”

Other local units like Shantinagar and Bangalachuli Rural Municipalities have also monitoring government schools to ensure quality education in the district.