Laligurans Municipality withdraws controversial decision to merge schools

ITAHARI: Laligurans Municipality of Tehrathum has reversed its decision to halt admissions in Grade 11 in three community schools within the municipality.

The municipal executive meeting held on July 25 withdrew the decision following strong protests by the locals against plans to merge schools and suspend new admissions.

Earlier on July 10, the municipal executive had barred three community schools in the municipality—Shriman Smarak Secondary School in Ward-3, Singhadevi Secondary School in Ward-6 and Tinjure Secondary School in Ward-7—from enrolling new students in Grade 11.

However, the decision immediately backfired. Students, guardians and concerned stakeholders launched protests against the decision and even organized a sit-in at the municipality office. In response, the municipality called another meeting and rescinded the controversial decision.

According to Ward-6 Chairperson Rana Bahadur Limbu, the initial plan was to merge six schools and allow only Basanta Secondary School and Ratna Secondary School to admit new students in Grades 11 and 12. “During the executive meeting, members said the decision should apply to all schools. This led to the reversal of the decision,” he added. “We corrected our earlier decision as we felt such changes should be made only after holding a direct conversation with the stakeholders.”

Limbu added that all schools are now allowed to enroll new students in Grade 11.

Mayor Arjun Mabohang said that the municipality’s earlier decision was in line with the government’s standards for school mergers. “The federal government plans to merge 15,000 schools. Schools with fewer than 40 students per teacher in hilly districts were being selected for consolidation,” Mabohang said. “However, we withdrew our decision because of dissatisfaction among the local stakeholders.”

Eight schools in Laligurans Municipality—Basanta Secondary School in Ward 2 (Basantapur Bazaar), Shriman Smarak Education Niketan in Ward 3 (Musangel), Public Secondary School in Ward 4 (Phulek), Singhbahini Secondary School in Ward 5 (Dangpa), Singhadevi Secondary School in Ward 6, Krishna Secondary School and Tinjure Secondary School in Ward 7 (Chamchim and Firkhe respectively) and Ratna Secondary School in Ward 8 (Solma)—offer classes for Grade 11 and 12.