How to be cool in school

In steamy hot May I visited Bardiya to review the school project ‘Education for Freedom’, which is implemented by BASE with the support of MS Nepal and with funds from Operation a Days work (OD) in Denmark. While in Bardiya I came across a cool surprise!

One of the new class rooms Photo: Anne Mette Nordfalk

Entering the school yard of Janjyoti Primary School  a one hour drive through the forest from Gulariya, the district capital of Bardiya district, an interesting building caught my eyes. It was significantly lower than normal school buildings and had grass on the roof. “The grass protects it from the heat and when the rain starts it makes the building less noisy”, explains my locally based colleague Sonam Wangchuk, who is the initiator of this new invention. 

The weather outside on this sunny day in early May was a steamy hot 37 degrees so we all rushed for shelter under the grass roof. As we walk down the stairs, passing a number of villagers who were hanging out in their new buildings, the temperature swiftly changed from hot to cool. Standing in the corridor outside the two new class rooms 3,5 feet under ground I could not help a sigh of relief as I felt the cool breeze running through the  windows above my head. 

In Bardiya the ‘Education for Freedom’ project has strived to enhance education during the last 5 years and as a part of this effort they are also building more schools. The project has budgeted for approximately four new class rooms every year, and now in its final year the school project has been blessed with a whole new technique, that has made the two class rooms built in 2007/2008 around 5 degrees cooler than the existing buildings. The technique stems partly from Sonam Wangchuks, a famous school activist from India, experiences from Ladakh in north India, partly from the ecological village of Auroville in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

The new school from the outside Photo: Anne Mette Nordfalk

A whole lot better than the usual stuff

I visited the new class rooms when they were brand new and just taken into use for the new semester, and they were definitely cooler and nice looking than the conventional buildings I have visited in the area. The new rooms are built 3,5 feet into the ground and have a grass roof to protect them from the sun and the noise in the rainy season.  In addition, the building has a porch that prevents water from entering.

As I entered the new class rooms a muggy sensation met me. The school caretakers had not realized that the windows that make the class rooms so nice and light are supposed to be open to let air circulate. However, the temperature was only 31 degrees, which was absolutely bearable even for Kathmandu citizens like myself.  The older buildings were 33,5 degrees. The children in this area go to school from 6 am to 11 am before the temperatures go any higher.   

Community participation

After the inspection of the class rooms I met with the community people who had put in one third of the funds for the new buildings. The cost has been around 12 lakh NRP(approximately 1000 US dollars). The local school committee has raised 2 lakh through various activities such as digging and leasing out a fish pound and through contributions from the local community. In addition, the whole village had contributed one day of labour pr. family. Lastly, they had managed to exchange soil for the use of a large digging machine owned by a contractor who needed the soil. Thus, the villagers got free digging and the contractor got the soil that was dug out when the fish pound and the school building were made!

This made the new building equal in price to other schools.

Sonam Wangchuk with community members Photo: Anne Mette Nordfalk

Beware of monsoon times!

The villagers told that they had faced lots of difficulties and delays of the building project as they had not been able to complete before the monsoon in 2007. This meant that the excavation site had filled up with water and that soil had fallen back in the hole. Reconstructing the hole thus took additional time and man power. 

Radiating heat

At six o’clock we returned for another measurement of the indoor temperatures. The school is comprised of three types of buildings, steel roof, plain cement and the new cement and grass roof lowered building, this made measuring rather interesting.

The new cool building was more or less the same temperature as earlier on, even slightly cooler now with no kids inside. The steel roof building was unbearably hot 37 degrees despite natural ventilation as the building did not have windows but merely shutters. In addition it was as dark as a cave!

The next door cement building turned out to be the worst: It was also 37 degrees inside but in addition the thick walls and roof were radiating heat! Felt like being in an oven!

I will be back

This was my first visit to the new schools of Bardiya. I look forward to return to the school in June 08 when experiences with the school have grown.