Forgotten Schools( My Republica, June 20 2017)

Classes cannot be conducted during the rains or on particularly hot or cold days

Education is the constitutional right of every Nepali child yet a large number of children are still deprived of it because of government negligence. The 2015 earthquakes resulted in big disparities in educational outcomes between affected and unaffected schools.

According to government statistics, over 8,600 schools were destroyed in 14 most-affected districts, hampering the studies of around 1.2 million children went to those schools. When they have to compete with students of ‘privileged’ schools in the open job market or in higher education, they will certainly lag behind, and for no fault of their own. 

Nearly two and half years after the devastating earthquakes destroyed these schools, the government has done little to normalize the situation. While several private schools have been reconstructed with private funds most government schools are in battered conditions. Many others—like the Darbar High School in Ranipokhari, Kathmandu—still lack funds to clear the debris. 

About 3,000 Transit Learning Centers (TLCs) were built in the affected districts, serving as temporary shelters with walls and roofs made of plastic, straw, bamboo or zinc sheets.

But TLCs are small and cannot accommodate all students. So students often have to study under open skies, which means classes cannot be conducted during the rainy season, as well as on particularly hot or cold days.  Even these centers have worn out, and they might collapse any time. 

Half the students in affected areas are girls. As they are not attending schools, they are being trafficked from quake-affected regions like Sindhupalchok, Rasuwa, Dhading and Nuwakot. Large number of girls from these areas are brought to urban centers to work in restaurants and dance bars, or trafficked abroad. According to the National Human Rights Commission, after the earthquakes, trafficking of girls below 18 shot up by 15 percent in these districts. Nepal Police says trafficking from these areas could have increased by as much as 150 percent. 

Education could have made these girls more aware of trafficking. But they have not been able to attend their battered schools. Besides the girls, even the physically and mentally challenged children are dropping out at alarming rates. 

Yes, some donor agencies have come to their aid and also helped with reconstruction of damaged schools. But they have not been able to do as much as they had committed to.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), for example, had committed to rebuild 283 schools but has completed only 83 so far. Likewise, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) had committed to rebuild 175 schools but has done only 84. The government initiative is even more worrisome, so far rebuilding less than 50 schools.

Rural students had been faring badly even before the earthquakes. In 2014, 93 percent students from private schools passed SLC exams while only 28 percent from public schools did. This gap is going to widen in the coming years as schools in affected districts await reconstruction. 

Lowering of educational budget has also hindered reconstruction. At least 15 percent of total budget used to be allocated for education. This fiscal, this has come down to 5.2 percent, an annual decline of 38.4 percent. Education budget has been diverted to establishment of new federal units and salary of local government staffs. This is a big setback to education sector, and schools of affected areas in particular. Since the government has committed to spend at least 20 percent of budget on education in various international forums, the donors should be constantly reminding it to live up to this commitment.

According to the Post Disaster Recovery Framework, US $167 million is needed for school reconstruction and yet only $53 million has been set aside for the purpose. It is uncertain if and how the remaining $ 114 million will be put together. Even donors that pledged to support school reconstruction are helpless without government initiative. 

We are talking about the fate of 1.2 million children of affected areas. It is vital that all the damaged schools are soon rebuilt, and books and educational materials delivered to them on time. For this, the government should increase educational budget to 20 percent of the total, as it has committed to do with the international community. Perhaps, then, the donor agencies would also be tempted to complete their unfinished business. 

Needs of the poor: Implement findings: (Himalayan Times December 1, 2016)

"The poor families should be provided identity cards that will enable them to receive ‘social security allowance’ and ‘compulsory health insurance’. This allowance can be used by the poor for total health care"

In Nepal about a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line. In 2010, the Nepal Living Standard Survey found that 23.8 per cent families earned below $1.25 a day which is the national line of poverty.

The condition of the people is continuously deteriorating in the last six years with the government’s lethargic poverty control efforts. The government has also lost control of the market. As a result, there is strong price hike in daily used commodities. In the last decade, inflation has hovered around two digits annually with about 13 per cent in 2008 as per the NRB. However, many economists believe that the inflation figures of NRB are utterly superficial as they have found from their sample study that the real market inflation could be much higher. Such market inflation has made the average life very difficult.

Since 2010, when the poverty level was calculated by CBS there had been no substantive employment generation activities and no mega projects, no mega constructions or factories. The economy has also been squeezed by the earthquake and border obstruction in 2015. As a result, there are more unemployed going abroad for work.

According to a governmental source about 3.7 million have already gone abroad other than in India and among these ‘labour migrants’ 80 per cent are young aged 15-35 and mostly from rural areas. Every day, 15-20 hundred remittance seekers fly from Tribhuvan International Airport. Also, as a rural area is associated with poor people, this data indicates the poor are more unemployed and more remittance seekers.

Rising inflation and unemployment indicate a rise in poverty. Families who were earning just above $1.25 in 2010 are hit by poverty now with their down turned earning capacities. It is obviously a failure of the government in addressing problems of the poor and implementing poverty alleviation plans. Some recent surveys of organizations like UNDP and CBS indicate a deteriorating capacity of the poor.

The Annual Household Survey of CBS published in September 2016 shows that household consumption capacity of rural areas, associated with poverty, has declined by about 2 thousand rupees from last year. What do the poor want can be answered by using this latest report of CBS that reveals many interesting findings that none of the previous surveys have shown.

Access to education and medication (hospital, doctor and medicine) are two crucial social indicators. This survey shows that in educational spending and medication, the richest and the poorest population is highly segregated. The poorest 20 per cent families spent more than 20 per cent of their earning in medication and less than 6 per cent in education while the richest 20 per cent of the population spent more than 17 per cent on education and 9 per cent in medication. Does it indicate the rich are less concerned about their family health and the poor towards child education? Rather, it indicates a compulsion of the poor to spend heavily for their family’s health. Although, the government claims free medication at government health centers there is incongruity in the claim as at government health centers’ free medicines, pathological tests and good doctors are unavailable.

So, eventually the poor have to seek such services from expensive private clinics/hospitals. The poor spend the least in education which impacts on their children’s employment and earning capacity. Also, the less educated poor are less conscious about health and hygiene. But with preventive measures and healthy food, most of the rich have good health.

Saving of the rich from medication is utilized for good education to children at good schools. The poor send their children to free public schools where teaching is hardly done as they have management problems and political interventions.

Thus, most children from the poor families get poor education, have bad hygiene and sanitation and are trapped in poverty. To assist the poor the government should seek updated statistics of the poor families. Many governmental and NGOs have done some work for such identification.

There should be a regular mapping of the poor. There should be an enumeration of marginal poor families who may be earning just a little more than $1.25 but are very likely to fall in the trap of poverty. Families in such grey area should also be grouped under the poor families. After identification, they should be provided identity cards that will enable them to receive ‘social security allowance’ and ‘compulsory health insurance’.

This allowance can be used by the poor for total health care which is not covered by health insurance. Health service of the government in most rural and remote areas are in pathetic conditions. At remote villages and most mountain or hill villages the poor who have serious illness cannot receive treatment as there is no good health post nearby and the sick have to be carried by helicopters to urban hospitals, which the poor cannot afford. Identity card for the poor should also enable them to access discounted education, transportation, and food on quota basis proportional to their family size.

Addressing poverty was the focus of national plans since the ‘Fifth Five-Year Plan’ of 1975. The government has announced achieving MDG by downsizing poverty population to 21.6 per cent which seems a mirage.

Battered Schools( myRepublica June 30, 2015)

Disparity in school Education from quake

"Earthquake has created disparities in educational performance between private and public schools, and between rural and urban schools. 

Most public and community schools whose buildings were destroyed in the quake lack funds even to clear the debris. 

It's especially disadvantageous for girls who are at high risk of not returning to school, or being exploited during this time of crisis owing to their lower social status and gender bias."

The recent earthquakes and numerous aftershocks in Nepal have shattered its school system. It has also created disparities in educational performance between private and public schools, and between rural and urban schools. All educational institutes of the affected districts which were closed after the April 25 earthquake were opened after five weeks. However, not all schools in the country have been able to resume studies. Many private schools in urban centers like Kathmandu Valley which were resourceful have arranged for temporary classes by taking extra donation from parents.

However, most public schools in poor regions which depended almost exclusively on government funds have started classes only on paper. The same is true of private schools in poor areas. Such conditions will naturally widen the disparity between haves and haves-not in upcoming days. Even before the earthquake, the disparity between private and public school education was profound, compared on teacher to student ratio, number of classes per academic year, availability of textbook for students, pass percentage in SLC and so on.

For example, in 2014, 93 percent students from private schools passed SLC, while only 28 percent from public schools did. This gap is going to widen in coming years: between the impoverished versus the affluent, private versus public and rural versus urban schools, if concerned stakeholders don't do something about it, and soon. The 2015 SLC examinations, held before the earthquake, showed some progress. But since the result came out after the quake, sympathy and grace mark must have played their role in improving the pass percentage.

Surkhet was heavily affected by floods last year. This year in SLC, its eight community schools, including six in the heavily flood affected VDCs, have zero percent success. According to the district school inspector, as reported in Republica: "The disastrous flood without doubt is a major factor for this result. It has had a grave psychological impact on students. Majority of students who appeared in the exams were flood victims and some had lost their parents or relatives." This is a snapshot of what is going to happen in the quake-affected districts. Compared to Surkhet, many of the areas affected by recent earthquakes are in a worse condition, with school buildings razed to the ground and whole villages destroyed.

Most public and community schools whose buildings were destroyed in the quake lack funds even to clear the debris. For example, we can see a heap of unmanaged debris in front of Durbar High School, and Nandiratri School, both near the center of the capital city.They are unable to arrange for temporary classes and don't have ample open space. Such schools should be allowed to run classes at some nearby open public space. Many private schools in rural areas are in the same destitute condition. Government should help such schools conduct temporary classes by providing them with necessary construction materials. If not supported, such deprived schools will fall farther behind. School teachers from rural areas who came to Kathmandu and other cities are now not returning to quake affected areas.

According to a UNICEF report, about 7,500 schools have been affected in the 49 quake-hit districts and more than 90 percent of schools are destroyed in the worst-hit Gorkha, Sindhupalchowk and Nuwakot. According to PABSON, a private school umbrella organization, in the three districts of the valley plus Kavre, at least 115 private schools need to be demolished immediately. Under such circumstances, most schools were reopened without any homework, without retrofitting and without temporary, safer classrooms. This haste was the result of many factors. It's obvious that private schools that were charging parents handsome tuition fees hurried to open their schools not to lose out on the monthly fees.

Meantime, most government schools have opened only partially, and even those that have opened don't have sufficient classrooms and other educational resources. Most government schools in Gorkha, Sindhupalchowk, Dolakha, Kavre, Dhading, Nuwakot and Rasuwa districts, which were more affected by the recent quakes than schools in Kathmandu Valley, are having a great difficulty in conducting classes. For example, at a school in Dalchoki, southern Lalitpur, 84 students of class 9 and 10 were bound to use rooms marked with red stickers that indicate that the rooms need to be demolished immediately. Same is true of the Gupteswar High School in Lalitpur, only 24 km south of Lagankhel, where 60 students are studying in buildings with red stickers. Often, they also bring along their small siblings since there is no one to take care of them back home.

Naturally, regular classes cannot be conducted in such schools. According to an inspection team of the Ministry of Education, in Kathmandu Valley alone, around 60 percent school buildings are damaged and about 2,000 classrooms have been rendered unusable. In Kavre, out of its 590 community schools, more than 100 are completely destroyed. In ten highly affected districts, including Kathmandu Valley, the earthquake has affected the education of around a million school-going children. This is a big setback for a country with 66 percent literacy, which, nonetheless, had seen school attendance climb to 95 percent in recent years, up from 64 percent in 1990. And it's especially disadvantageous for girls who are at high risk of not returning to school, or being exploited during this time of crisis owing to their lower social status and gender bias.

One reason behind the haste to reopen schools, even without putting in place proper safeguards, was to complete the mandatory 220 class days for the academic year. However, this problem could have been solved by adjusting holidays for festivals, summer and winter vacations. But a lot can still be done. First, the government must without further ado provide every kind of financial and technical support to rural and government schools so that they can resume regular classes at the earliest. Second, the inspection of all school buildings in quake affected regions should be made mandatory and all unsafe buildings should be promptly demolished. If need be, the schools should be closed until the time the buildings they are occupying have not been declared safe.