In the chilly high-altitude district of Humla, where the cold is intensifying, students have resorted to sitting in the sun to undertake their annual exams. Despite the absence of snow this year, the plummeting temperatures have compelled students to move their desks and benches to open gardens for their annual and final examinations.
The frigid weather has posed significant challenges for students, leading schools to organize exams in outdoor spaces. Principal Premkala Budha of Balabhadra Basic School in Santa Village, Simkot Rural Municipality-8, explained that due to the extreme cold inside the classrooms, students are exposed to the sun during exams.
Recognizing the impracticality of writing in the cold classrooms, the school arranged to conduct exams outdoors, with desks and benches set up in the garden. The decision was made in response to students expressing difficulties in taking exams indoors due to the cold.
Balabhadra Basic School, catering to 162 students in classes one to six, currently employs eight teachers. After the conclusion of the annual exams, the school will observe a winter vacation lasting 45 days. In Simkot Rural Municipality-1 to 8, simultaneous annual exams are being held in primary and secondary schools, covering most of the schools in the district's seven rural villages. The northern region, including the headquarters Simkot, experiences harsher cold conditions, with temperatures dropping below freezing. Despite the absence of snowfall in the district, the winter temperatures reach sub-zero levels, and in case of snowfall, the temperature can plummet to minus 15 degrees.
