A school reconstructed in Nepal under the Government of Japan (GoJ) supported Emergency School Reconstruction Project (ESRP) was handed over to the school management committee on April 19. The handover ceremony of the reconstructed Patan Secondary School, the second oldest school in Nepal, took place in Patandhoka in the Lalitpur district in the presence of K. P. Sharma Oli, the Prime Minister of Nepal.
Also present at the occasion were Krishna Gopal Shrestha, Minister for Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) of Nepal, Chiri Babu Maharjan, Mayor of Lalitpur Metropolitan City, Sushil Gyewali, Chief Executive Officer of the National Reconstruction Authority, and Yumiko Asakuma, Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The school, which had been severely damaged by the 2015 earthquake and reconstructed under the GoJ supported ESRP, is one of many schools reconstructed under the project.
Addressing the handover ceremony, Prime Minister Oli said, “The reconstruction of the second oldest school building of the country would undoubtedly assist in fulfilling the aspiration of the national development agenda.” He expressed his appreciation for the Japanese assistance provided to rebuild the school.
Reminding those in attendance that Japan is also a natural disaster-prone country that understands the effects and consequences associated with the recovery process, Kikuta Yutaka, Ambassador of Japan to Nepal, said, “Sharing empathy and solidarity with the people of Nepal, based on Japan’s experiences and lessons learnt, the GoJ has been working together with the GoN and its people for the recovery of Nepal from this disaster.”
During the ceremony, Ambassador Yutaka expressed hoped that the ESRP project would further strengthen the relationship between Japan and Nepal.
- The GoJ has been supporting the post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction in Nepal ever since the devastating earthquake occurred in 2015
- ESRP, which was originally aimed at the reconstruction of 236 schools affected by the earthquake, is now aiming to assist 274 schools by November 2022
- In addition to dispatching the Japan Disaster Relief teams for rescue and medical services immediately after the earthquake in 20215, the GoJ pledged assistance of approximately US$290 million at the International Conference on Nepal’s Reconstruction held in Kathmandu on June 25, 2015
- ESRP, mobilizing about US$ 120.4 million, formed part of this
- So far, the reconstruction of 215 schools has been completed in the most affected districts such as Lalitpur, Dhading, Nuwakot, Rasuwa, Gorkha, and Makwanpur
Reconstructed with GoJ’s loan assistance of US$1.32 million, Patan Secondary School is one of those completed schools - This school has a total of 833 students of which 409 are girls
- Reconstructed with the concept of both “Build Back Better” and “Child, Gender and Disabled (CGD) friendly”, the new school building inherits a beautiful design from its historical motif
- It is anticipated that the essential facilities including classrooms, laboratories specializing in physics, chemistry, and biology, a library, computer rooms, and toilets will help students to obtain a quality education.
“The memory of our school days lasts a lifetime. Thus, we hope that this new school building will make the students feel safer during their school years and enable them to focus on their studies without any fear. The school may also serve as an evacuation shelter in the community during any future natural disaster,” the ambassador of Japan to Nepal remarked. “We hope it contributes to the improvement of education services and earthquake resilience for sustainable socio-economic growth of Nepal for future generations,” he added.
ESRP aims not only to rebuild and retrofit schools but also to build back even better under the Build Back Better concept.
