Our School is Full!

Nepal is one of the poorest 20 countries in the world. Nevertheless, it has made great strides with developing education, and, in the last 10 years, most children enrol in school and learn to read. But only about half go on to secondary school and achieve good results, and most of those are in the cities.

We are proud of our new intake of 3 and 4 year olds, and the young people who have joined us higher up the school. Some of these children come from far away up the mountainside and board with relatives.

Here are two stories from children who have come from far away to study at our school: ‘’I joined this school last year after my mother passed away. My real home is Jhapa, but I live in my uncle’s house at Hangdewa. My father and brother live in Jhapa. I think I made good decisions to choose this school for future studies. I am very happy. I am progressing with my studies. In class seven there are big wall paintings about the scarcity of drinking water, Photosynthesis, distillation in the lab, Vitamins etc. I love the paintings on the wall. I also want to paint. ‘’I received my new books from school. Our school provides lots of good facilities for all the students. The new course books are a little bit harder, but I am doing my best from beginning so that I do well at the end of the year. (Sesang came 4th.) I always go to school. I love my school. The school building is very beautiful. The teachers are very good at teaching. There is good drinking water and good facilities for toilets. There is a big science lab, computer room and music and arts room. And there are good facilities of sports. I love to play games and I like to read story books. My favourite sport is football. I love to play football. In school we have a small library. I love to read stories and poems. ‘’Hangdewa is such a lovely and beautiful village. The people work in the fields for living, growing crops, vegetables, and paddy in the field. The people of the village are so lovely and help each other in every work and every difficulty in society. I love to live in Hangdewa.’’

’’I will introduce myself. I hope you will be happy to hear about me. My name is Aaditya Limbu. I study in grade six. I am in 2nd position in the class. I am 12 years old. My home is in Phatak Tanglung Rural Municipality. It takes a whole day to reach my home from Hangdewa. I am living near school in Amrit Baje’s house with my sister. Because in our village there is no good education, so many children are moved to other villages for better education. Most of them live in Taplejung Bazar and some go to big cities. ‘’I have a small family. My father works in furniture as a carpenter. My mother is a homemaker. I have a little sister her name is Prithivi Limbu. She studies in class five in the same school. She is a very loving sister. I love her so much. I take care of her because we are far from home. After the final exam we had a small holiday. I went home to spend time with my parents. We had good time with together. After the vacation, it is great being at school. Now I am upgraded to class six. I received my books and uniform. The school provides a lot of facilities to students. The drinking is very safe and good. The toilet and the washroom are very clean. We have a big playground for sports. I like to play football. ‘’The teachers are good at teaching. My favourite subjects are Science and Math. In my free time I also like to read story books. School has a small library. I borrow books from the library. In school here we learn many things like computers, Music, sports, and new experiment of science. Practical science and music are new for us to learn. We are very happy and lucky to learn new things. I personally feel very lucky to have a part of this lovely school. I have a big dream to achieve and learn more new things and do somethings new at my rural village. I hope I will be successful in my life.’’

Fridays are Special – Time for Extra-Curricular Activities

The children look forward to engaging in sports and can play badminton, table tennis and football as well as traditional skipping and dancing. These are played so energetically on our rough ground that we have just restrung all the badminton rackets.

Virtual reality also arrived in Hangdewa with a visiting Geo-Science lesson … classes 5-8 were ‘there’ for the Apollo 11 landing on the moon, as well as watching planets with 4D effects in a small planetarium.

We Achieved ‘’Excellent’’ Public Exam Results: 3.61 / 4.00 Average

We are not a selective school, with many children from the lowest ‘untouchable’ caste and nearly 50% girls (who are often treated as 2nd class citizens in Nepal). So to achieve an average of an ‘A’ grade i.e. above 3.6 in the public ‘Basic Leavers’ Certificate’ that our Class 8 (aged 13/15) took in April, was remarkable. Well done students and teachers! Subjects: English; Maths; Social Studies and Population; Science and Environment; Health and Physical Education; Occupation, Business and Technology; Morals; and Computers.

We have a New Class 8 with 14 New Prefects

We have introduced a 10 minutes’ reading slot throughout the school every day.

So much evidence shows that children who read for 10 minutes every day are exposed to 600,000 words a year. We have found that those children who are ‘readers’ become fluent in English to a far greater extent than those who do not use the library. A great innovation! We have about 300 books and 255 children. Please message me if you can send me children’s books (new or 2nd hand), or money to buy some in Kathmandu.