Bajura: Government schools in Bajura district are running short of textbooks. Such a shortage comes at a time when the SLC examination is near at hand.

Most of the schools in 11 remote VDCs are hard up for course books. A student preparing for the forthcoming SLC test said he has only books of four subjects. “It will be tough for me to face the test without books,” said Kalak Rokaya of Bichhya Secondary School. “I never could buy books of all eight subjects ever since I got enrolled in the school.”

Balaram Joshi, a teacher of Shambhusunanda Secondary School, said books of Grade 6 to 10 were hardly available in the local market.

According to district secretary of Teachers’ Union Tula Bahadur Thapa, most of the schools in the district lack textbooks. “More than 25 percent students in many VDCs, including Rugin, Bichhya, Sappata, Gotri, Jukot, Wai and Badhu, do not have textbooks,” he said.  When asked, an officer at the Bajura District Education Office, Krishna Kunwar, expressed ignorance about the book shortage. He said the education office had released budget to all schools to purchase textbooks.

source: The Kathmandu Post, 12 Feb 2012