Headmaster: Dinesh Simkhada
Tamang Kharka Higher Secondary School has 825 children aged 3 to 18 years. There are a number of solar panels here to provide electricity but more are needed. The 16 to 18 year olds attend school from 6.00am to 10.00am and are taught in very poorly lit classrooms with up to 80 pupils per class. There are no computers in the school but there are two teachers who are very computer literate. There is a desperate requirement for at least one computer to keep records of all the children. There is a well presented library but insufficient books, with a need for modern reference books. More buildings are needed to house the pupils and although there are a few toilets, there are not sufficient for the number of pupils. A new sports ground is currently being built for the use of the school and the surrounding community.
2014 report by Trustee Liz Wherity
The school welcomed us with open arms and it was delightful to see Dinesh again. There are fewer children in the school now, only 650, as many parents are able to pay for their children’s education and send them to private schools in Kathmandu. There are 18 teachers, 6 or 7 of whom speak English. 5 teachers have attended Harihar’s training.
It is very obvious where the impact of the training has been focused and that is in the younger primary classes, where there is a bright cheerful environment for learning with stimulating displays and comfortable, cushioned seating areas.
A community building with solar panels is now being used, the school has it for two years at the moment and here there are classrooms, a library and the computer suite, which houses 16 computers, a lap top and a digital projector, all powered by huge batteries charged from the solar panels. The ICT teacher had excellent English and was very computer literate.
The school is in a dilemma regarding the leased community building as they are worried about losing it and not having anywhere else to use. For some reason they can’t adapt existing spare rooms.
Although the lower primary classrooms are excellent, they would like more English and Nepali story books, rhymes, maths books and reading books (they already have a few).