Shikshya Jyoti Primary School
Basant Taar, Panchkanya – 8, Sunsari
Shikshya Jyoti is the CaN Education Foundation’s first project. The project is being conducted in Shikshya Jyoti Primary School, Basant Taar,Panchkanya – 8, Sunsari, Nepal. In this project altogether 18 children from grade 1 to 5 are supported by the foundation. The children are given one set of school uniform, one pair of shoes, and stationery. Besides, the school also gets fund for stationery, as well.
A brief background of the school is presented here because it would be interesting to know how the school came into existence.
The school was established in BS 2052, Poush 27 (10/01/1996 AD) as an informal education centre with the involvement of cadres of Nepal Scout, Sunsari and few local people. Cadres of Nepal Scout, Sunsari, during their field trip were swarmed up by the local children because, to everyone’s surprise, there was no school in the community or at a distance where the children could commute. Although, Basanta Taar is not far from Dharan, one of the burgeoning cities of Nepal, but because of two streams to the east and west of Basant Taar, it was not possible for the children to walk to the schools. On the other hand, adults and parents were not able to walk the children to the schools because their priority was feeding the family but not education.
After learning the disheartening situation, scout cadres Bina Rai, Bashudev Bhandari, and Indra Sharma started teaching the children voluntarily. Every volunteer walked many kilometers every morning to teach the children before they went to their regular jobs at 10:00AM. Number of children in the education centre started growing day after day. Everyone involved to the project were excited to see the growing number of children. The education centre also brought parents of the students, social workers and local political figures together towards the noble cause.
After some time a physical address became necessary to register the education centre as a formal school. Obviously it was the motivation created by the project that Mr. Parsu Gurung, a local social worker donated a piece of land to construct a school building. No one but the volunteers knows how hard it was to start a school building project without a Rupee at hand. But their enthusiasm was with them. All the volunteers came together with ideas to raise fund for the school, and a campaign was put in to action. They collected cash donations, sold raffle tickets, and a team of French Scout was brought who not only donated some money for the construction project but they also worked as laborers. The scout cadres and local volunteers worked as laborers, as well. Finally, the school building made of cement and bricks was in front of every one. Later, Sushma Koirala Memorial Trust added another building, Peace Corp Volunteer, Ms. Joanne Barlin funded to construct a washroom for the school staffs and teachers.
Now, the school is moving forward with its very encouraging history, and helping more than one hundred children of the financially struggling community.
Note: Many pieces of the history have been preserved by the school administration.
Location
Shikshya Jyoti Basi School
Basant Taar, Dharan Municipality – 4,
Sunsari, Nepal