We believe that children will learn better and faster if they eat good and healthy food, but not all children have that possibility when they have a long way to go to reach the school. Therefore, in 2020 Ascent Aid Nepal built, with the help of donations, a modern school kitchen to be able to provide warm, healthy, nutritious food for all 100 students and 8 teachers every day for free.
The school kitchen is build by local materials such as wood and bambu and with the help of local labour to support the Patle community workers.
About 100 students are studying in Janata Basic School in Khiji Demba Gaunpalika-9 Patle of Okhaldhunga. They are mostly children of the Sherpa community. All students wear a school uniform prescribed by the Government of Nepal.
Students also need special clothes to do sports in. Therefore Ascent Aid Nepal has also provided all students with a sports dress.
Now students and teachers of the Sherpa community studying in the school should will wear the traditional ethnic dress of the Sherpa community two days a week. The school management committee has decided to make the ethnic dress of Sherpas compulsory for students and teachers on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It is the first school in the district to use ethnic dress as a school uniform.
Pemba Sherpa, the chairperson of the school management committee, said:
the Sherpa dress has been introduced in education to preserve their ethnic dress from the school level. The preservation of culture has been started from the village school as it is losing its identity with modernity.
Ascent Aid Nepal helped 3,500USD to provide Sherpa uniforms to RTP Slot the students and nine teachers. Chairman Sherpa himself is chairman of Ascent Aid Nepal too.
The children studying in this school wear the school uniform prescribed by the Government of Nepal on Sunday and Monday, Sherpa traditional dress on Tuesday and Wednesday and sports dress on Thursday and Friday.
Student with Government Recommended Dress
Student in Traditional Sherpa Dress
Student in Sports Dress
Education is the fundamental right for all people all over the world, but in Nepal education for the general public started very late. This has affected the development of the nation. Because of the lower number of schools and infrastructure facilities in remote villages of Nepal, many children in these villages are still deprived of their education and many of the schools still lack proper education infrastructure and materials.
The current literacy rate in Nepal is 65.94% according to census 2011. Through the “Education for All Vision 2030,” the government of Nepal has made education free of change up to the basic level and the goal is for all children to go to school. To meet this target, re-construction of schools and other infrastructure destroyed and damaged by earthquake 2016 will be a major challenge.
The devastating earthquake in Nepal on the 25th of April 2015, with a magnitude of 7.6 and an aftershock with a magnitude of 6.8 followed after 27 days, caused massive destruction of lives and property. According to the Post Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA), surveyed after the Nepal Earthquake 2015, the social sector, which includes housing and human settlement, health care, education, and cultural heritage is the most affected sector in Nepal by the earthquake. It has destroyed several education and institution buildings. Fortunately, the day of the earthquake was a public holiday, which saved many students and teachers’ lives. The earthquake has affected the minds of most people, especially students. Because of the massive destruction of school and education buildings, there are still many students studying in temporary plastic shelters or tin tents. The changing seasons have added further complications for them as many schools are forced to run in damaged buildings because of rain. The re-construction of these schools has not started yet. Only a few schools have started to rebuild with the help of local public initiation and with support from donors.
The devastating earthquake has traumatized students’ minds and most of them are still studying in a threatening environment. This has a negative impact on their minds and their ability to study. The re-construction of their schools can relieve them from this threatening environment. The career of all students depends on their study environment. The government, the management committee of the schools, teachers, and parents, all should think about a quick reconstruction of the school.
Janta Basic School, located in the remote village of Patle-4, Okhaldhunga district of Nepal, was established in 1988. Before this establishment was made, many children were deprived of their education due to the far distance of the closest school available.
The School is guided by the principles of “Educating All”, stated by the Sustainable Development Goal of Vision 2030, and for 28 years the school has been providing basic level education for all children of the village, and all course books are free.
Because of poverty, many parents are still not able to send their children to school. The free admission, no tuition fee, and free course books have encouraged marginal groups to send their child to school. Besides that, the school has been involved in creating awareness about the importance of education among the villagers, in order to encourage them to send their child to school.
Janta Basic School also educates children about health and sanitation. With limited resources, Janta Basic School is continuously providing education to village children.
The total number of students and teacher of Janta Basic School
| Grade | Current Number of Students | Targeted number of Students |
| Play group | 0 | 15 |
| Nursery | 10 | 15 |
| Grade 1 | 15 | 15 |
| Grade 2 | 10 | 15 |
| Grade 3 | 9 | 15 |
| Grade 4 | 11 | 15 |
| Grade 5 | 15 | 15 |
| Grade 6 | 15 | 25 |
| Grade 7 | 13 | 15 |
| Grade 8 | 16 | 15 |
| Total number of students | 99 | 165 minimum |
| Teachers | 9 | 11 |
In previous years, the school had less than 20 students. We have increased the school facilities and also increased the quality of education. Now, the total number of students at Janta Basic School has increased to 99 students. We have targeted to increase the total number of students to 150 each year.
In the beginning, there were two teachers in Janta Basic School, including the Principal. Now, we have 9 teachers, 4 teachers are paid by the government and 5 private teachers are paid directly by Ascent Aid Nepal. He is chairman of Ascent Aid Nepal too. As the number of students and classes are increasing, we need at least 11 teachers, so we are also consulting with NGOs and INGOs for volunteering teachers and private teachers.
We have already got permission from the district education office for upgrading the Janta Basic School. With the beginning of the new season (i.e 1st Baishakh 2073 BC (April 2016)) we will add further basic classes till grade 8 in 2075 BC (2018).
Janta Basic School has been providing the following facilities to school children with objectives of increasing the quality of education and motivating children for education.
Management committee structure of Janta Basic School
The recently held meeting of Janta Basic School has elected a new management committee of 8 members under the chairmanship of Pemba Sherpa. The famous mountaineer guide and an 8-times Everest Summiteer have made significant contributions to the development of the village. His contribution to water supply management and road construction in villages has made an important impact on the villagers. Before being elected as school chairman, Pemba Sherpa donated his land for the reconstruction of the Janta Basic school as the previous school building was completely destroyed by the earthquake and the existing location was not safe anymore because of its tough topography.
Teachers of Janta Basic School
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Photograph of the newly elected management committee of Janta Basic School with students and guardians.
Janta Basic School is managed by the management committee elected by villagers and district education offices. During the first meeting of the newly elected management committee, an important resolution to upgrade the school to basic level was made and the construction of a new 16-room school building, including nine classrooms, library room, office room, storage room, and teacher room. The change in the school location was also decided. The school has not been able to up-grade classes before, due to lack of budget for infrastructures and proper management since its establishment. Thanks to donors and volunteers from around the world, the school was finally able to upgrade all the way from playgroup up to ninth grade.
Temporary School shelter after an earthquake
The school building was completely damaged by an earthquake and the building was marked as a danger by the Nepal government. All schools in Nepal were shut down for almost one and half months due to earthquake and continuous aftershocks and the reopening of school was made in temporary shelters of tents and tin rooms.
Photograph of students studying in a temporary shelter after Earthquake 2015
Because of the rainy season and the late start of the reconstruction of the school, the children and teachers had no choice but to go back to the old, badly damaged school building. The earthquake had shocked the children, affecting their mental health. Therefore, we needed to rebuild the school quickly. Since the location of the previous school building was not safe anymore, the school management committee decided to search for new, safe, and suitable land to rebuild the school.
Pemba Sherpa decided to donate his land and with the support and donations from his friends around the world, the first building of the new school was built. Thanks to this outside support the government of Nepal finally helped with the budget of a two-storey school building. Now the Janta Basic School has 14 rooms and the school management committee is planning to build three more rooms to be used as a meeting hall, library, and canteen. Project details and fundraising will start soon.
1) The construction of Janta Basic School’s new building has been started with some financial aid from generous-hearted donors, but still more financial support is required to complete the rebuilding of the school. As the school is public, villagers are supporting school construction. As the reconstruction of school requires a big amount of budget, the financial aspect is a major challenge.
2) The school is located in a remote village of Nepal. The road transportation facility is temporarily available in the village, so transportation of required material to the project site is a difficult and costly task. It is highly dependent on the seasons, which pose challenges on the timely completion of the project within the projected budget.
Project location
Address:-Patle, Okhaldhunga
The existing school building was badly damaged by the earthquake and the existing location of the school is not safe, because of its tough topography. The sloping land does not have sufficient ground for children as children may get injured while playing. There is also the risk of landslides nearby schools, so the school management committee decided to rebuild a new school in a new suitable and safe area.
Janta Basic School was donated 54 ropani of land with the approximate cost of $20,000 by local resident of Patle, Pemba Sherpa and his kindhearted family.
The reconstruction of the school was made possible by the financial assistance of Dr. Karina Oliani through the Dharma Project. Dr. Karina from Brazil had earlier climbed Mt. Everest with Pemba Sherpa in 2013.
Fredrik Hjorth and Renata Chumska from Sweden have made donations through the Kropp challenge, organized in memory of the legendary mountaineer Göran Kropp from Sweden.
Arnold Costar, Maya Sherpa & Maximo Kausch contributed crucial financial support for the construction of the school building.
For this project, the local villagers have also been involved.
Cost of Shree Janata Basic School
(Purpose Name Shree Buddha Basic School)
Patle-4 Okhaldhunga
Recently khiji demba grand village -9 Okhaldhunga
1) Wood cutting total (16,360 feet) USD 4,090:00 (0.25$ per feet)
2) Transportation of wood USD 1,963:20 (0.12$ per feet)
3) Stone breaking USD 1,700:00
4) Stone transportation USD 4,000:00
5) Cement ( 135 sack, 16.5$ per sack) USD 2,227:50
6) Sand (270 sack, 2.5$ per sack) USD 675:00
7) Pebbles (405 sack, 2$ per sack) USD 810:00
8) Tin roof and plain sheet USD 2,150:00 with transportation
9) Metal rod (900Kg per kg 1$) USD 900:00
10) Nails (80 Kg per kg 2$) USD 160:00
11) Pipe (300 m) USD 110:00
12) Log of wooden (2 piece 40 feet each)USD 140:00
13) Water tank (capacity of 500ltr) USD 70:00
14) Construction cost (labor) USD 7,000:00
15) Playground construction USD 1750:00 ( 25 hours use Excavator, 70$ per hour)
16) Miscellaneous, USD 1,500:00
17) Total expenses USD 29,245:70 (NPR Rs. 2,924,570:00 Exchange rate 1$ = Rs100)
The Management Committee of the school was planning to build a two-story building with RCC roof, the project activities and projected costs are as follows:
Project Activities and cost estimation
For completion of the project, we needed a budget of approximately 51,600 USD. The duration of project completion was 2 years.
General information of project
| Project Name | Construction of Janta Basic School |
| Total project budget | 95,000 USD |
| Budget from government | 60,000 USD |
| Donations | 35,000 USD |
| Project manager | Pemba Sherpa (chairman of School) |
As the whole nation is affected by the devastating earthquake, most of the cultural heritage, educational institutions, infrastructures, tourism route, and infrastructure and almost all sectors have been damaged by the earthquake. So, we cannot look and wait for the government to help with the renovation. With support from villagers, we have started to rebuild the school buildings. We still need more support to construct the school building further. So, we request your generous support for completing our project.
School projectAscent-Aid is a non-profit organization working for the welfare of Nepalese society. The organization is actively working to eliminate poverty, insecurity, and illiteracy among the Nepalese. Ascent-Aid is continuously working...
