Only 23 school buildings reconstructed till date

Dolakha, Dec 6: Students enrolled at more than 300 schools in Dolakha district are forced to attend classes at temporary education centres due to the delay in post-quake reconstruction of the damaged school buildings.

It has been 19 months since the massive 7.6 Richter scale earthquake shook half of Nepal last year despite which 343 schools out of a total of 366 schools are forced to run classes in temporary centres. The buildings of only 23 schools have been reconstructed till date.

According to District Education Office (DEO), Dolakha, the district previously had 370 schools which came down to 366 after multiple mergers.

The earthquake completely razed down 260 school buildings and inflicted partial damages to 110 schools. Even though 23 schools have been reconstructed, the government has not doled out a single rupee in name of grant assistance for post-quake reconstruction of school buildings here.

The NGOs and INGOs have extended support for reconstruction of 23 school buildings while 12 more are currently under construction, according to District Education Office (DEO) Chief, Narayan Kaji Kasichawa.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has shown interest in building 25 school buildings while Indian Embassy and Chinese Embassy have pledged to reconstruct ten and three school buildings respectively. The DEO has appealed to the line ministry to release assistance for reconstructing the remaining 308 school buildings.