सिंहदरबार संवाददाता
Mustang. Teaching has begun in community schools in Mustang. After a two-month winter break, schools in Baragung, Gharpajhong and Thasang rural municipalities of the district have resumed operations.
Community schools in Lower Mustang, where snowfall and extreme cold during the winter months of Poush and Magh affect children’s teaching and learning activities, give students a long winter break. During the winter, local level schools are given a two-month long winter vacation.
Community, monastery, amchi and institutional schools under Lomanthang and Loghekar Damodarkunda rural municipalities of Upper Mustang will leave their previous locations and move to the valley during the winter, said Rameshwor Lamichhane, Head of the Education Development and Coordination Unit.
There are 35 community schools in the district. 12 schools, including monastery, amchi and institutional, are in operation. Out of the 47 schools in the district, 24 schools in Gharpajhang, Thasang and Baragung Muktikshetra rural municipalities give winter vacation every year. Thus, schools that have given a two-month long winter vacation will gradually continue teaching and learning activities from the first week of Falgun.
It has been stated that the academic teaching of schools will be suspended for 60 days, including 45 days of annual government leave and 15 days of substitute leave, for the two-month long winter vacation in the district.
Education Development and Coordination Unit Chief Lamichhane informed that the three local level community schools in the district have gradually resumed academic teaching since Falgun.
According to him, even though schools have opened, students outside the district have started returning to school. Unit Chief Lamichhane said that academic teaching has begun in most community and religious monastery schools in Gharpajhong, Thasang and Waragung Muktikshetra.
According to him, although the schools at the three local levels in the district are completely closed during the winter months of Poush and Magh, schools in Upper Mustang do not give winter vacation to students. Schools in Upper Mustang have a tradition of transferring students to the valley to run mobile classes on the recommendation of the local rural municipality.
Since the cold weather affects the health of children and can even hinder the conduct of educational activities at the school, schools in Upper Mustang take students to various places in Pokhara to conduct educational activities.
It is a tradition for schools in Upper Mustang to shift to a warmer place in the valley before Kartik to run mobile classes to avoid the cold, informed Bikash Keshi, the administration chief of Lomanthang rural municipality. He said that three community schools in Lomanthang Rural Municipality are running mobile classes in their own buildings in Pokhara.
Similarly, seven out of eight community schools in Loghekar Damodarkunda Rural Municipality in Upper Mustang were evacuated to escape the winter.
The rural municipality’s Ghami Basic School, on the other hand, was given a two-month winter vacation without being evacuated to escape the winter. The Ghami Basic School has been operational after the winter vacation, while the remaining seven community schools are operating in the valley as mobile classes, informed the rural municipality chairman Lopsang Chomphel Bista.
Chairman Bista said that the schools in Loghekar have been temporarily merged and are operating mobile classes in two locations. Although the schools in Lower Mustang have reopened after a two-month long vacation, the schools in Upper Mustang return to their previous locations in April after the onset of summer and resume teaching and learning activities.
Since the government brought uniformity in the academic session across the country since last year, educational activities in the Himalayan district have been facing difficulties. Earlier, the current academic session used to be completed before Pus in the Himalayan districts and the new academic session would start in Falgun.
Samjhana Thakali, a member of the management committee of Janhit Secondary School, said that the uniformity of the academic session was hindering the teaching and learning activities of school children studying in the Himalayan region.
According to her, the two-month winter vacation has affected academic performance as students forget the learning achievements they have studied and learned. She said that the government needs to reconsider the implementation of the academic session in the Himalayan region.
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