Kathmandu, May 11
Central Level Project Implementation Unit (CLPIU) of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) has completed the reconstruction of 274 schools with 760 blocks and over 4700 rooms.
The reconstruction
of those schools damaged in the devastating 2015 Gorkha Earthquake in Gorkha,
Dhading, Nuwakot, Makwanpur, Rasuwa and Lalitpur districts was managed under
Emergency School Reconstruction Project
(ESRP) with Rs. 14
billion in investment.
The reconstruction was based on the earthquake-resistant type design
guidelines jointly formulated by the Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and ADB under the principle of 'Build
Back Better' (BBB).
The reconstruction
of the school structures is part of the Emergency School Reconstruction Project (ESRP) supported by JICA. The
Project was implemented by the CLPIU at the Education Ministry.
Speaking at the
programme, Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Ashok Kumar Rai, thanked
the Government of Japan for the assistance in the reconstruction of education
infrastructure. He also expressed his commitment to improving the quality of
education in the schools.
Former Chief
Executive Officer of the National Reconstruction Authority, Sushil Gyawali,
expressed his happiness over the completion of the project and said that the
quality infrastructure is the foundation of quality education as well. He urged
the school management, teachers and stakeholders to work to improve the quality
of education.
Meanwhile, he also
said that there is a need to adopt BBB principles in the remaining schools
across the country.
The ESRP was
implemented based on designs and structural guidelines which comply with the Nepal National Building Code. All the
274 school buildings are reconstructed with multi-hazard resilient structures – which are child, gender and disable-friendly
– to provide an improved learning environment
for the students based on the concept of BBB which increases resilience not
only physically but also socially.
Besides the school
buildings, the support also includes classrooms well equipped with furniture, laboratories, early childhood
development centres, separate toilet blocks for boys and girls, solar back up, playground, boundary
fences and footpath
pavement, informed JICA.
Secretary of MoEST, Ram Krishna Subedi,
said that the Japanese support has been
instrumental in enhancing access and quality education and the capacity of the education
system in Nepal.
Ambassador of
Japan to Nepal, Kikuta Yutaka, said that Japan’s assistance contributes to the improvement of education services and earthquake resilience for sustainable
socio-economic growth and hoped for further strengthening of cooperation
between Nepal and Japan.
Okubo Akimitsu, Chief Representative of JICA Nepal,
expressed his commitment to making further efforts so that the children
studying at schools
of ESRP will inherit a more resilient Nepali society as a
result of our cooperation.
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