Today was our first visit to some of the schools that we work with. We started by going to the poorest school that we work with which is Ishwor. The school is currently experiencing a drainage problem as a result of some digging in the road outside and as a result the school has no running water so cannot operate. The principal had arranged for pupils to come into class especially for our visit but was going to close again the following day until the drainage problem has been resolved. The school has a total number of pupils of 130 but only 96 were present for our visit. As we toured the classrooms it was nice to see the pupils wearing their uniforms and winter coats which KIKN provided after last years visit. The principal explained that their needs were still very basic as in, stationery, exercise books as these are not provided by the government, uniforms, the breakfast club and help towards their electricity and water bills. It was nice to see all the smiling faces of the pupils again though.
Our second school visit of the day in the afternoon was to one of new schools, Janavikash. It is in a poor area of Kathmandu but as we entered the grounds my first impression was of a very neat and tidy school. The school now has some 450 pupils (roughly an even split between boys and girls).with 27 teaching staff but when it started about 45 years ago there were only some 26 or 27 pupils. The school is on the banks of the Bagmati river in a area where the establishment of a cement factory led to an increase in population and the foundering of the school. The school now runs all age groups up to year 12 (sixth form). After a visit to all the classrooms we then went to meet the principal and her financial officer. As well as some refreshments we were given a sample bowl of the type given to all the pupils daily for tiffin. It was a tasty mix of a variety of vegetables, rice, and potato. We were also told that an egg was provided once a week. We were then given a detailed proposal from the principal covering everything including their academic results and their wishes to develop the school. By the time our visit ended school had finished for the day.