Alaiche Kedar Primary School
The district of Lamjung was severely affected during the earthquake 2015. The village Archalbot suffered, like many other villages, from destroyed infrastructure and buildings. The village’s two schools merged as a consequence of their damaged facilities, and Alaiche Kedar Primary School was created. The education continued in the classrooms surviving the earthquake, even though these buildings were damaged and were likely to collapse in the case of a new earthquake.
Alaiche Kedar Primary School has 68 students, studying 1-5 grade, and the facilities were not big enough for the number of students. The Department of Education provided the school with four new classrooms, but the need for more space led to continued use of the classrooms damaged during the earthquake.
Education Nepal was founded in 2016 and our first project aimed to improve education for students in the village of Archalbot, Nepal. The project was created in co-operation with our partners Build Nepal and Women Self Help Center, Lamjung, and the mission was to provide the school new classrooms and toilets.
A certain type of brick called Compressed Stabilized Earth Bricks (CSEB) were used, made out of 10% cement and dirt and sand from the area. This type of brick has a low environmental impact – 90% less emissions than the traditional method of burning bricks – and strengthens the local job market and economy. In total, 7 700 bricks were manufactured, these were reinforced with bars both vertically and horizontally to stabilize the walls.
This safe and well-built new school will increase student’s enthusiasm and improve their education for a better life.
The buildings were constructed by local workers and entrepreneurs, trained in earthquake resistant technology by Build up Nepal during the construction. This benefits the local society and population, enabling future projects and constructions. Entrepreneurs Sathish and Dinesh Chaipai both worked on the construction at Alaiche Kedar Primary School and invested in the ‘heavy duty machine’ used to manufacture the bricks on site. They have since the project rebuilt 8 homes in the district of Lalitpur.
The construction of Alaiche Kedar Primary Shools new buildings was completed by the end of May 2019, and the newly constructed classrooms were handed over to the school management during an inauguration ceremony. Around 70 people attended the ceremony; teachers, students, parents and representatives from the government, all of whom expressed gratitude for the new classrooms. The classrooms allow for smaller classes to be held and contributes to increased quality of education. The new classrooms give new hope not only to the current 68 students studying at the school, but also to future generations in the village of Archalbot as well.