The new buildings of Samata school in Biratnagar and Itahari were inaugurated on Saturday.
The school has been providing quality education for just Rs 100 per month to the economically deprived and children compelled to live in prison with their parents convicted of various crimes.
Comedian duo Haribansha Acharya and Madan Krishna Shrestha inaugurated the buildings amidst a function. Addressing the programme, a slew of guest speakers lauding the school’s initiative stressed that individuals from all walks of life needed to work together for the noble cause since it was challenging to provide quality education by charging minimal fee.
While there are more than 500 students studying in the school in Biratnagar , there are 1,700 students in Itahari.
The school had been operating from a rented building since the past two years in Biratnagar , as they had been using a temporary structure built from locally available raw materials by leasing a land spread over 17 katthas in Itahari.
The school that had started from Jorpati, Kathmandu as Samata Niketan about 11 years ago has branched out into 25 districts, including Biratnagar , Sunsari, Ilam, Jhapa, Siraha to name a few, till date.
Apart from educating more than 250 students, the school has established a 51-bed hospital at Boudha, Kathmandu. The school has also setup an ‘ashram’ sheltering single women and elderly in the Capital.
The school administration also said they intended to expand to 20 more districts in the future, including Dhankuta, Mahendranagar, Rajbiraj, Chandrapur, Janakpur, Hetauda, Bara, Gaighat, Sindhuli, Dang, Gulariya, Damauli, Trishuli and Gajuri among others from the upcoming academic session.
About 900 students have applied for enrollment at 10 branches of the school for the present academic session.
A number of distinguished individuals, including Upendra Mahato, social worker and founding chairperson of Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) and former chairperson of NRNA, Jiba Lamichhane among others had participated in the programme.
