Kalakhola, Dang
SHREE SECONDARY SCHOOL

The Shree Secondary School (SSSK) in Kalakhola consists of several buildings with a total of 26 classrooms. There are currently 926 students attending the school, from kindergarten to grade 11. They are between 3 and 25 years old (some students started education late or had to take a break and are therefore older). The SSSK is located on the same site as the Tulsipur Disability Center, which was built and opened by Chay Ya in 2022, and is also attended by the children with disabilities who live there.

Normally, secondary schools in Nepal go up to and including grade 12, but at the SSSK there is such a vehement lack of space that it is not possible to increase to the last grade level. This is a problem because there are hardly any secondary schools in the surrounding area. This means that most students have to drop out of education after grade 11 at the latest. This means that they only have the last year left for a high school certificate. Without this, however, further educational paths remain closed to them.

In addition, the school lacks the right equipment to raise the quality of education in the long term. There is no library and no laboratory or computer room. This is especially bad for students from poorer backgrounds, which includes many families in Dang. They cannot afford books, which not only hinders the children’s reading progress, but also thwarts the passing on of specialized scientific literature to the older students. Without scientific equipment, knowledge can only be taught theoretically, without the possibility of illustrating physical or chemical processes, for example. This does not encourage many children to become more involved in these areas of the curriculum and to pursue a possible career in this direction.

Therefore, Chay Ya’s plan is to construct another building, with seven classrooms on two floors, to counteract these problems. In addition to the classrooms, there will also be gender-separated restrooms. This will allow the school to not only ensure quality instruction, but also provide more students with the opportunity for education, as this building will allow the SSSK to increase student numbers from 926 to 1500 and educate up to grade 12.

The local government supports the project with 20 % of the construction costs.