Bhaktapur: Many schools across the country, save community schools, are operating from three-and-a-half storey buildings made for residential purpose. Such schools neither meet the criteria of a standard classroom nor are earthquake-proof, risking the lives of hundreds of students.

To get rid of the situation, the Department of Education has recently proposed Institutional School Standard and Management Directives, 2012, which will determine the standard size of institutional school buildings and classrooms.

As per the proposed directives, the new institutional schools need to have two doors with 1.1 metre width and 3*4 ft windows that allow adequate flow of air and light. The size of the classroom should be one sq ft per student at the Basic Level and 1.2 sq ft at the Secondary Level.

The schools should have separate rooms for Principals, Teaching Staff, Administration, Account Section, Library, Store and practical room.

The directives also state that the total number of students in each class should not exceed 33. The average height of the class rooms should be 8 ft in Mountainous and Hilly Region while it should be 9 ft in the Kathmandu Valley and 10 ft in the Tarai.

The schools also need to pass the blueprint of their buildings before constructing the same.

Tek Narayan Panday, director, Department of Education, said, “New institutional school buildings must follow the proposed directives and such buildings must be earthquake-resistant.”

“To find out whether the school building is earthquake resistant or not, the school needs to authenticate it from the engineers of Division Office under the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction,” Panday added.

Sangita Baral, a teacher in an institutional school in Kathmandu, said, “Currently, there are around 40 students in a class, beyond its capacity.”

“Due to congested classrooms, the students cannot pay attention to their studies and cannot move freely,” Baral added. She said if such standards were maintained in every school, students would not have to suffer a lot and they would perform well.

Ramila Bista, a guardian, said, “We pay a lot on our students’ studies, but we feel very bad when we have to see our children complaining about the infrastructure of their school.”

source: The Kathmandu Post,31 Oct 2012