The Government Education Policy for Kamaiya Children is Faulty

The Government has initiated Non-formal Primary Education Program and Primary Education Extension Program as an alternative to school education for the children of the freed Kamaiya since fiscal year 2001-02. The alternative schools are run under the Basic and Primary Education Training Program funded by various donor countries. An amount of Rs. 286,000 was provided to the District Education Office, Bardia to carry out the program. The goal of the Primary Education Extension Program is to provide primary education to the children aged between 6 and 8 years. The children will be made to follow the course prescribed for 1-3 grades.

Similarly, classes are being run for the children aged between 8 and 12 under the Non-formal School Program. The five-year curriculum is administered in three years in these classes. Altogether 10 classes including five under the Primary Education Extension Program and five under the Non-formal School Program are running in Bardia district. It was expected that the program would provide employment to the local youth and each class would comprise 20 students. However, this has been found not practical and has become ineffective. Teachers are paid Rs. 1,500 per month. District Education Officer Nayan Singh Dhami claims that the basic training will help increase the educational standard of the children of freed Kamaiya. However, this has not been the case in reality.

The statistics provided by the District Education Office, Bardia shows that there are 151 government schools and 80 primary schools in Bardia. There are 40 government-run lower-secondary schools and three privately-run lower-secondary schools. Similarly, the numbers of government secondary schools and private secondary schools are 32 and five respectively. 70,000 children are studying in schools in Bardia. As shown by the statistics, 80% of the children aged between 6 and 10 in the district are attending the school. The rest of the children, as reported by the District Education Office, are from the Tharu community and the landless squatters' community.

The Education Regulation explicitly says that the number of students under one teacher in the government school should not exceed 55 but in Bardia district the case is different. In the current situation there are about 80 students in the primary level under the supervision of one teacher. In this regard, District Education Office Nayan Singh Dhami says that the problem has already been reported to the Education Department but the Department has not made any response yet.

District Education Officer Mr. Dhami says that the District Education Board has requested the Education Department to grant 10 additional programs to provide education to the freed children of Kamaiya but the Board has not received any instruction from the Department till the end of the month of Asar (mid-July). However, he is confident that the programs will be granted. It has already been two years since the Kamaiyas were freed but the government has no statistics about the freed Kamaiya children as to where and what condition they are in. There is an argument going on between the Land Reform Office and the District Education Office regarding the responsibility for collecting the statistics.

District Education Officer Mr. Dhami, estimates that between Rs. 30 and Rs. 40 million is needed to provide education to the freed Kamaiya children. But he does not see any possibility of such a big amount coming from the government. However, he claims, "There will be a great improvement in rehabilitation of the freed Kamaiyas and schooling of their children in five years." One can only wait and see to what extent the prediction of the District Education Officer will come true.

The Non-formal Primary Education Program being carried out in Tepari, a settlement of the freed Kamaiya nearest to Gularia Bazaar, serves as an example to show how successful the program is. There are not more than 14 students in the class being run in Tepari, which lies in ward no. 12 of Gularia Municipality. The government statistics show that there are 179 families of the freed Kamaiyas in Tepari. There should be more than 200 children supposing that each family has at least one child. But not even 15 children go to school.

On fine weather day, Teacher Mr. Aitmaad Ali Saiyad cycles to Tepari from his home at Gularia Bazaar to teach his students. The school has no building. No one seems to be concerned for constructing a school building. Students gather under the shade of a 'Simal' tree in Tepari. The teacher stays with the students throughout the day and teaches them if it is a fine weather day. On cloudy and rainy days, there will be no class. Teacher Aitmaad himself is a student at a campus. He is studying in the second year of Intermediate in Education courses in Babai Multiple Campus in Gularia. On the days when he has a morning class, he does not go to Tepari to teach. On such days, he teaches in the evening for two hours. In this way, Teacher Aitmaad is getting on with his own study along with his teaching profession.

Details of the alternative schools run by the Government for the freed Kamaiya children