Most of the children in the Gurukul come from families living in the district headquarters, Manma, while working as wage laborers.
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Saraswati Gurukul Basic School, located in Ratakhal, near Khadachakra-1 Manma Bazaar, has a majority of Dalit and tribal children.
The school was established on Magh 24 of the same year after conducting a Mahayagya in Manma Bazaar in 2070 with the aim of teaching Sanskrit. Although 50 people from Khadachak donated land in various places during the Mahayagya, it was not suitable for use, so a six-room building was built on the vacant land owned by the Khadachak Nagar Development Committee with the help of the then JBI and the District Education Office.
School Management Committee Chairman Jayachandra Adhikari said that it was difficult to accommodate the children in residential settings after the building here started leaking and that 20 children studying Sanskrit were sent to Devghat. ‘It was difficult to accommodate the children due to the dilapidated physical structure and lack of budget,’ he said. ‘There is a plan to call them back after the new building and structures are built.’
Currently, the Social Development Office through the Karnali Province Ministry of Social Development has started the construction process of a two-room concrete building at a cost of Rs 3 million.
Kamala Rokka Magar, who teaches her three children in Manma Bazaar as a wage laborer, said that there is a shortage of schools for the poor. Her younger son Rajesh is studying in class 5, while her daughter Sarita is studying in class 2.
Although the school is not currently a student, 37 children from disadvantaged communities are enrolled in the school as residential students, said Principal Shashi Chaulagain. According to her, there are 18 children from tribal communities, 10 Dalits, and 9 from other communities in classes 1 to 5.
Most of the children in the Gurukul are from families living in the district headquarters Manma as wage laborers. There are 4 female teachers in the school, which teaches classes 1 to 5. The principal alone receives a salary of 260,000 rupees annually as a grant, while other teachers are from private sources.
Although it was established as a Sanskrit school, the school is in trouble due to its dilapidated physical structure and weak financial condition, said Principal Chaulagain. The building she built 10 years ago is dilapidated, one of which has collapsed, and the other is uninhabitable, so she said that some relief will come after the construction of a new two-room building by the Social Development Office.
In 2070, during the Mahayagya held for a week in Manma Bazaar, 50 people announced a donation of land worth about Rs 1 crore, but the old building where the school was located was demolished to make way for the new building, said Dharmadatta Upadhyay, a member of the management committee.
The school held a social audit with stakeholders after gathering parents to assess the regularity of students, learning achievements, and the school's annual income and expenditure, said Aviraj Shahi, head of the Social Development Office. "It was found that there were many problems in the school. The building, drinking water, and toilets are all dilapidated," he said. He said that the Social Development Office had awarded a contract for a two-room concrete building this year because children from disadvantaged communities study there.
Ajay Bam, spokesperson of the Kalikot District Coordination Committee, who participated in the audit, said that everyone should support the school, which has children from all castes, even if it is called Gurukul. He suggested that the Khadachakra Municipality and other stakeholders should support the school where children from the underprivileged communities who work as wage laborers, carry heavy loads, and crush gravel study.
In the academic session 080/081, the school had an income of 1,129,075 rupees including teacher salaries, scholarships, mid-day meals, textbooks, residential grants, and rations, and spent 678,209 rupees. It is estimated that the income for the current fiscal year will be 1,651,151 rupees and the expenditure will be 773,699 rupees.
