A government school with a 102-year-long history, the oldest in Bhaktapur district, is still facing ongoing problems. Shree Padma Secondary School, located in the Durbar area of Bhaktapur, has been compelled to endure various shortages, including the lack of adequate buildings.
On the occasion of the school’s 102nd anniversary and the 16th anniversary of Padma College, held on Monday, Principal Ram Hada expressed sorrow that this historic school, which is more than one hundred years old, is still struggling with classroom shortages. According to him, the school’s old buildings were destroyed by the 2072 earthquake. However, those buildings have not yet been reconstructed. At present, the school has been teaching students in various temporary shelters.
In the programme, Principal Hada stated that work is under way to construct two of the three proposed buildings on the northern side of the school’s main building. However, he said that there is a shortage of funds for the construction of these buildings.
The chief guest of the programme, Bagmati Province Minister for Culture and Tourism and former student of the same school, Suresh Shrestha, pledged to take initiative for the construction of the school buildings. He said that, since the budget for the current fiscal year has already been passed, he would work to secure budget for the next fiscal year. He also said that, by gathering former students and collecting even just one thousand rupees from each of them, it would be possible to raise enough support to build the school buildings.
In the programme, chairperson of the School Management Committee and ward chairperson of Ward No. 3 of Bhaktapur Municipality, where the school is located, Rajkrishna Gora, said that it is unfortunate that, although government education officials are aware of the painful condition of a school that carries a hundred-year history, it has still not received support. Therefore, he strongly emphasised that the government should end the practice of allocating budgets only to the party in power and instead adopt a policy of budget allocation based on actual needs.
In Bhaktapur, despite great struggle during the Rana period, the school was opened in 1981 BS. It was established during the rule of Chandra Shamsher under the name “Bhadgaun English School.” Social worker Jag Bahadur Amatya and Pandit Shiv Prasad Mishra operated the school up to two classes. It was the first school in Bhaktapur to introduce English education at the initial stage.
In 2003 BS, when Padma Shamsher ordered that it be upgraded to the secondary level, its name was also changed. Students from this school have been participating in the SLC examination since 2003 BS. At that time, four students sat for the examination. Having faced various problems since the Rana era while paying attention to the educational quality of Bhaktapur, this school has, up to the present, still been forced to conduct teaching in temporary shelters.
Bhaktapur School News