By Netra Shahi
Jumla, Oct. 29: The unavailability of braille books in the district has impacted the studies of visually-impaired children.
Grade XI and XII students of Shree Bhairab Secondary School located in Sinja Rural Municipality in the district are still awaiting braille books.

"We have been facing difficulties in studies as the books have not arrived even months after the start of the new academic season," said Dharmalal Pyakurel, a Grade XII student.
According to Pyakurel, braille books of Grades XI and XII had not arrived in the school yet. "We have heard that the books have not been published till now," he said.

Due to the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, the District Crisis Management Committee had made a decision to provide books to all students at their homes.
Nepal Association for the Welfare of the Blind and Nepal Association of the Blind have been publishing braille books for visually-impaired students for a long time. Both the associations informed that they were not publishing braille books this year.

Former Chairman of Nepal Association of the Blind Nara Bahadur Limbu said that the government had not made any programme addressing the blind students of grades XI and XII.
The government has framed a plan to publish braille books only up to Grade X. Deputy Secretary of the welfare department under Education and Human Resources Department Dibya Dawadi said that the government had not made any plans to publish braille books of the aforementioned grades.