DHADING: Gairang Lower Secondary School located at Jogimara in Dhading is reeling under acute financial crisis of late. The local consumers had been running the school with the income from Jalkini Gyangrang Community Forest in Jogimara. However, as the loan given out to the locals by the community forest could not be recouped on time, the school has been facing crisis. “The school is on the verge of closure due to budget crunch as well as failure to collect the loan. The locals have not returned the loan amount or interest for the past six-seven years,” said locals.

Earlier, the school management committee and consumers’ committee had reached an agreement to run the school with the money from the interest of forest income. The school has been facing crisis for the past few years since the community forest was unable to collect the interest, said SMC chairperson Shyam Bahadur Gurung.

According to him, they are yet to collect around Rs 700,000 as principal amount and more than Rs 400,000 of interest amount so far. There are more than 250 students in the school, which runs classes from early childhood to grade eight. Three teachers under primary quota, one each under relief for early childhood and primary, along with four other teachers have been managed under private resources in the school.

“We have to manage Rs 17,500 every month to pay the salary of the teachers at Gairang Lower Secondary and Malike Primary School. But we have been failing to do so as the consumers didn’t return the loan,” said Mani Raj Gurung, secretary of the group. The teachers have not received salary for the past one year, he said.

The school management committee has not been able to develop infrastructure along with other teaching resources due to budget crunch. Gurung said locals need to return the loan as early as possible so that the school could run smoothly.

-HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE