By Madhusudhan Timalsina
Kavre, Dec. 24: Reconstruction of 226 schools damaged by the 2015 earthquake in Kavrepalanchowk district has finished. The schools were reconstructed by the National Reconstruction Authority’s District Project Implementation Unit (Education) with loan assistance from the Asian Development Bank, grant from the Government of India and help from various organisations. The Unit had started the work from the fiscal year 2016/17.
Project Implementation Unit’s task
Dev Kumar Baral, head of the District Project Implementation Unit, told The Rising Nepal that the schools were constructed through their management committees. “A total of 271 school buildings were selected for reconstruction through their management committees. Of these, 195 have been completed and handed over,” he said.
The Unit was given the responsibility to rebuild 68 schools in the fiscal year 2016/17. Out of them, 65 have been completed while three are under construction. In the fiscal year 2017/18, it was tasked with rebuilding 70 schools, out of which, it has completed 62. Similarly, in the fiscal year 2018/19, budget was allocated for the reconstruction of 84 schools in two phases. Budget was disbursed for 51 schools in the first phase and the Unit has completed reconstructing 48 schools, while in the second phase, budget was dispatched for 33 schools and it has reconstructed 20.
The 49 schools selected in the fiscal year 2019/20 are all under construction. “The office is partnering with the school management committees to finish the work on the remaining schools soon,” Baral said. He attributed the delays to the COVID-19 pandemic, geographical remoteness, lack of access to transportation and a shortage of skilled workers.
Schools under emergency project
According to the Unit, work on 28 schools handled by the Government of Nepal under its emergency project with assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is complete. Baburam Devkota, engineer at the District Project Implementation Unit (Education), shared that the work was completed with a loan of Rs. 1.29 billion from ADB.
Similarly, 19 more schools are being constructed with the ADB loan under the government's Disaster Management Project. Of them, three have been completely rebuilt, seven are in the process of being handed over and 45 per cent of the work in the remaining nine schools has been completed.
India’s help
The Embassy of India is supporting the reconstruction of 10 schools in the district. Information Officer at the implementation unit Shriya Jha informed that 55 per cent of the work in the schools, being built with a grant provided by the Indian government, had been carried out. The embassy had taken the responsibility to rebuild those schools that have more than 500 students.
Under India’s help, six rooms of Bhagwati Secondary School, six rooms of Aajad Secondary School and Dugdheshwor Secondary School in Panchkhal, 12 rooms of Aajad Secondary School in Banepa, 17 rooms of Laxmi Narayan Secondary School and 21 rooms of Kanpur Secondary School in Namobuddha, 15 rooms of Khanddevi Secondary School in Chaurideurali, nine rooms of Sharada Secondary School in Panauti, 13 rooms of Janahit Secondary School in Khanikhola, nine rooms of Bhairav Secondary School in Mahabharat are being constructed. Barring Aajad Secondary School in Panchkhal, all other school buildings are being built with toilets, the Unit said.
Work on 70 schools yet to begin
Going by the District Project Implementation’s statistics, work on 70 schools has not started yet. “Work has not started because these schools either lack land or do not have a large number of students,” Information Officer Jha said. “Lack of access has also hindered the reconstruction of schools in rural areas,” she added.
The Unit estimates that the number of schools may decrease because some schools which only have a few students have started merging. “We cannot say that we will need to reconstruct 70 schools. Since the local levels have adopted a policy of merging, this number might decrease.”
Mahabharat Rural Municipality appears to be ahead in the number of schools reconstructed, with 96 per cent of schools there already rebuilt.