Nepalgunj: A survey carried out by Banke District Education Office shows that as many as fifteen per cent children in Banke have not been admitted to school at all.

According to the survey, 21,696 children of school going age in the district are deprived of the education. Man Prasad Regmi, section officer at District Education Office Banke, informed only 1,25,847 minors have been enrolled in the school out of the total 1, 47,543 children of school going age.

The report states that children from Madhesi, Muslim, Dalit, disadvantaged and downtrodden communities comprise large number of kids who are left out of the school. Regmi said his office did its best to enroll children through this year’s enrolment campaign that kicked off three days ago.

A large number of children from the rural areas such as Mataiya, Gangapur, Fattepur and Hiraminiya are also deprived of education. More than 1,200 children are outside school at Kohalpur area alone. Regmi said that his office will launch enrollment campaign in those VDCs where more than 500 kids are deprived of education.

Ekadev Panthi, Chairman of Nepal Teachers’ Organisation Banke, complained that some public schools sans students despite having teachers.

Bhola Yogi, of Blind Association in Banke, said that many differently-abled children have not been admitted to school. He argued that conducive environment should be created in the classroom where differently-abled children would not be discriminated in the classes. Tanka Prasad Dahal, however, said that provisions for scholarship and educational materials have been attracting students to the community and some madrassas.

Acting DEO Ramsuresh Yadav said that every child should be given a chance to attend the school. He said his office has issued directive to schools to provide education for free from grade one to grade eight.

source: The Himalayan Times,17 April 2012