My Early School Life

An Experience of Studying in Government School in Nepal

As a matter of fact Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world which is clearly visible in the daily life of Nepali people including the educational facilities provided to its' people.  So it's not surprising even today that we read the news of some schools in remote places having unbelievably poor facilities.  My school in Kamalakhoj 'Ladavir Secondary School' was one of such schools of those days that it could be showcased as one of the poorly managed institutions.  Even though compared to rugged Solukhumbu plain land of Kamalakhoj is considered as less remote, but the school we had there in Kamalakhoj was much poorer than the one we had back in Solukhumbu.  The school had to serve as regional secondary school for whole of Kamalakhoj valley resulting it to be one of the most crowded school of the entire district. For grades one to three we didn’t have separate class rooms for a long time. There was a rich man known as land lord of the area who was also the head of the school management committee had let school use one of his cow sheds as class rooms and certainly the kids of lower grades were to use those sheds as their learning place.  We had to go early enough to be able to remove cow dung before the classes would start.  We also had to prepare our own seats to sit upon which used to be rice straw or other dry objects.  To avoid the smell and labour to clean the shed sometimes we used to study under a tree near the school. 

After a few years, we got a new school building with big play ground.  However by the time number of students was already unmanageable.  We didn't have section or sub section in the classes.  All the students admitted would be accepted would be taught in one single class room.  To have around 80 students in a class was common and some of them would end up standing against the wall while studying as there wouldn't be enough benches.  There were many regions to drop off from the school and one of the unseen reasons was not to be able to find a place to sit in the class rooms because the seat would be taken either by strong and bully students or the ones who come way too early. 

Extracurricular activities were virtually not in existence.  There would be one volleyball court for entire school which would be taken by senior, better and strong students.  There were no any other kinds of sport activities for the students.  Likewise, there was no library, toilet or emergency first aid support available.  One can imagine the teaching quality would be in such situations.  Teachers certainly wouldn't be able to pay attention to the needy students. He could only satisfy the one who are on the first few rows in the class room.  I studied 10 years in the same school yet I was not noticed by any teachers as who I am and where do I come from.  To be known by teachers either one had to be extraordinarily good in education or sports or from rich families or notoriously wicked. 

Substantial number of students would come from poor families without adequate educational materials such as pens, pencils, books or some other things and instead of finding solution teachers would punish them.  Even though I wouldn't consider  myself as from extreme poor family, I had gone through extreme need of educational materials because like many other families I also had to make optimum use of the educational materials.  For example, my grandfather would buy new exercise book only after once I show him that it's all written from page one to end.  On most occasions there would be only one item bought for writing purpose either  a pen or a pencil and if that’s lost by some reason it would take lot of effort to persuade him  to make him buy new one.  This was because we didn't have any source of cash income so we wouldn't have even small amount of money to buy things we wanted and that was the case of most of the families as most of them were from farmer families.

It can sound surprising how students still would be able to get the education then?  Well in our village's case we used to depend on senior students. Especially my uncles (father's cousins) were economically not in such desperate condition.  They had big family.  So in the evening all students from the village would gather at their house to study. So it would be like another school class in their house.  We used to study sharing each other's books, notes and ideas to complete the homework or other extra studies.  We didn't have electricity so we used to share a kerosene lit lamp for the light.   

In the early days, there were no periodical tests in the school. All we had was annual test.  After annual test teachers would announce result of the exam saying, "well this year all of you kids passed this grade and upgraded to other one." Then there would be big applause back. Our school was also notoriously known as one of the corrupt schools. Poorly performing students would be promoted to higher grades as students would have to pay higher fee in the higher classes. The reason of taking too many students in admission was also connected to money issue because that would generate ‘more income' to the school. 

The poor performance of the school would be reflected in the school leaving certificate exam (known as SLC) which would be under taken by national board and most students from our school would be failed or would receive lower rank. In order to pass the SLC exam students, teachers and parents would join hand to cheat in the exam.  Even in Nepali language it's called 'cheat' to find the answers by cheating.  The act of cheating had different forms from hiding whole course book, guide book or notes inside the under wears to hide them in the toilet and use them while there is chance to use the toilet.  Rich parents usually would provide ‘expenditure’ to the teachers who help cheating to their kids. 

Organized cheating in the school exams especially in the SLC is still very common in the government run secondary schools.  In fact government has recently issued a rule considering cheating in the exam as crime and those who are involved would be sent to jail!  Last SLC exam held few months back, draw attention while teachers, students and parents were arrested due to cheat scandal in various parts of the country.   

Well, when I appeared in the SLC exam it was in 1991.  Even though I was not good I was above average in most subjects so I never cheated on the exams.  However, I did sneak few clues from the friends to complete my mathematic paper as I was so bad on math.  Students who pass SLC are graded first division, second division and third division possibly equivalent to A, B and C in the USA or other countries.  I had secured second division, good enough to claim I was not that bad! 

After SLC, I had returned home along with my grandfather in Solukhumbu before coming to Kathmandu for further study. I have explained my early college days on the opening post of this blog.  I will bring the second part of the student life in the university on coming posts; till then all the best to you all.