Nepal: India-funded school buildings inaugurated in Lumbini province

The official opening of the school and laboratory buildings of Shree Gautam Buddha Secondary School, Buddhabhumi Municipality, Kapilvastu District, which were constructed with financial help from the Government of India amounting to 33.23 million Nepalese Rupees (NRs) under the ‘Nepal-India Development Cooperation’ programme, took place on Monday. Mayor Keshav Kumar Shrestha of Buddhabhumi Municipality, Chief of District Coordination Committee Kapilvastu Baburam Acharya, and Deputy Chief of Mission Prasanna Shrivastava of the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu celebrated the inaugural ceremony. According to a news release, social workers, teachers, parents, students, government representatives, and members of the school administration were also present on this particular occasion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepali counterpart Sher Bahadur Deuba had laid the foundation stone for the India International Centre for Buddhist Culture and Heritage at the Lumbini Monastic Zone in May last year. The “Nepal-India Development Cooperation” grant from the Indian government was used to create a three-story lab building and a double-story school building, as well as to purchase lab equipment and furnishings. Under an agreement between the governments of India and Nepal, the project was taken up as a High Impact Community Development Project (HICDP), formerly known as Small Development Projects. The press announcement added that the District Coordination Committee, Kapilvastu, was responsible for carrying out this initiative. In a statement, Prasanna Shrivastava, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of India, Kathmandu highlighted that the project is an important part of the very robust development partnership between India and Nepal, which has made significant progress in recent years, spanning various priority sectors of the Government of Nepal and its people. He expressed the continued commitment of the Government of India to continue to bolster the development partnership as per the priorities of the Government of Nepal, for the benefit of the peoples of both countries. In 1978, Shree Gautam Buddha Secondary School was founded as a community-based school. It has been authorised by the Ministry of Education and is associated with the National Examination Board. The educational programmes offered by this school range from Play Group to 10 2 Level. There are currently approximately 1200 kids enrolled in this school, with girls making up roughly 52% of the student body, the statement continued. India has undertaken approximately 550 HICDPs in Nepal across a range of sectors since 2003, and 488 of those projects have been completed. Out of these, 60 projects—five of which are in Kapilvastu—are spread throughout several sectors in Lumbini province. In addition, on the eve of India’s Republic Day and Independence Day, the Indian government sent 234 school buses and 974 ambulances to different hospitals, health posts, and educational institutions in Nepal. The statement further stated that 160 ambulances and 35 school buses, including 18 ambulances and 4 school buses supplied in Kapilvastu District, have been handed to Lumbini Province. India and Nepal share extensive and multisectoral cooperation as close neighbours. The execution of HICDPs is evidence of India’s ongoing support for Nepal’s government’s attempts to improve the lives of its citizens by expanding field-priority infrastructure, particularly in the country’s educational system. (With agency inputs)