Oct 7 : Children pursuing education through virtual mode during the time of coronavirus pandemic are bearing the brunt of frequent disruption of power supply.

Owing to disruption of power supply for four days in a week in the north-east part of the federal capital, Kathmandu, the children are denied their right to education.Power disruption is becoming a regular phenomenon in the Gokarna no-light zone of Gokarneswor and Budhanilakantha municipalities.

Sachina Thapa, a fifth grader of Chandikashwori English Secondary School at Gokarneswor-2 complained that her study has been adversely affected due to obstruction to the power supply.    

There was power disruption in Gokarneswor area for 24 hours on Sunday. Mostly power supply is reported to have been disrupted for 2-3 hours a day for the past one month. It is recurring during the time when schools conduct their online education.    

Frequent shifting of electric poles and maintenance of electricity in course of the road expansion drive from Jorpati to Sundarijal during the day time has caused regular disruption of power, said chief of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA)’s Gokarna No-Light Office, Umeshman Chinya.However, power disruption was resulted in Bouddha on Sunday for 24 hours when a ripper demolished the electric transformer and three poles.   

The Education Committee of Gokarneswor municipality had initiated school education by adopting full safety protocols since October 2 when power disruption had become a routine.

Nevertheless, the institutional schools operating in the municipality have yet to operate their classes in a face-to-face mode.    

PABSON Kathmandu Chairperson Hari Krishna Shrestha said the classes are running by maintaining social distancing between the students in the rooms when online classes saw myriads of problems due to power disruption, internet connectivity and health complications.

source: risingnepal, 7 October 2020