By Krishna Tiwari
Garuda, Jan. 17: Even though the government has invested heavily in community schools in Rautahat district, that investment has not been translated into the improvement in their physical infrastructure and the quality of education they offer.
The condition of community schools in urban areas can be considered acceptable but of those in the rural areas of the district is deplorable. They have suffered under the negligence of their teachers and headmasters who do not adhere to the class timings and show up and leave at their own whim. Even when at school, they spend more time talking to each other than inside classrooms teaching the students. This has resulted in the drop in the standard of education which, in turn, has caused many parents to pull their kids out of community schools.
Guardians The Rising Nepal spoke to complained that even though there were community primary schools in every village, their sorry state had forced them to seek out expensive privately-run educational institutions for their wards.
Similarly, the physical condition of many of the schools is appalling. The buildings look old, the classrooms are dirty and in some cases the students have to sit on the floor because of a lack of chairs and desks.
All these seem to have demotivated the students from going to school because not many attend classes on a regular basis. More than 200 students are enrolled in the primary school located in Madhopur, Ward No. 6, in Madhav Narayan Municipality from Grade I to V but hardly 15 show up for classes on any given day. This story repeats itself across all the community schools of the district, parents say.

Meanwhile, the teachers blame the pupils for the schools’ poor condition and say that the quality of education has degraded because the children do not attend lessons daily. The students, for their part, claimed that the teachers did not pay attention to teaching.
However, retired teacher Yogendra Yadav said that the problems lay with the local governments. “As long as the local governments do not prioritise education, the standard of our community schools cannot be improved.”
Since, under the current national setup, education is the responsibility of the local units, Yadav urged them to be serious about solving the sector’s problems and improving the output.
“While our community schools continue to deteriorate, the school management committees, principals and people's representatives have not shown any interest in rescuing them,” he said.
Education experts also echoed this sentiment and asked the management committee members, educators and elected officials to focus on reviving the neglected schools.