Tulasi Prasad Dhodari, a resident of Katuwa in South Lalitpur, had great interests in politics. He was a Pradhanpancha during Panchayat System in Nepal. During a local election in his village, his nomination was unlisted and his opposition leaders tried to cheat on him because he was not educated. This incident made him want to open a school in his village so that children there would be educated and wouldn’t have to face domination from others like he did. That’s what led to the establishment of Janak Secondary School (initially named Katuwa Primary School) in 1973 AD. With the increasing number of students, the school was upgraded as Lower Secondary School in 2033 BS (1976 AD) and Secondary School in 2068 BS (2011 AD).

Students from different ethnic backgrounds including Brahmin, Chhetri, Tamang, Magar and Dalits are enrolled in the school’s ECD classes to Grade 10. Some of the students walk for 3 hours to come to school as there is no hostel for the students. The families of the students are involved in farming, foreign employment and various small scale local businesses for livelihood.

There are 20 teachers (19 teaching and 1 nonteaching). Out of these, 14 are permanent, 1 RHEST Volunteer, 1 ECD teacher, 1 Office Assistant and 3 TFN Fellows. TFN Fellows have been placed in this school since 2015 AD and the current fellows are Gaurab Shrestha, Milan Kumar Sardar Tharu and Ravindra Dahal.

Regarding the school’s infrastructure, there is a library which is not managed well. No science lab has been built so far. There is a Computer Lab with 10 computers that run from solar back up, but these are usually not used by students. However, after TFN Fellows’ placement, teachers and some community youths have been learning to use the computers. Al the classrooms have access to whiteboards.

English is occasionally spoken and people communicate in their own mother tongues. There is an SMC under the chairmanship of Mr Ram Raja Rana Magar. Kamal Ale is the present Chairman of the PTA there.

Students who appeared in the SLC Examinations in the last three years:

Year Appeared Passed First Division 2069 BS (2012 AD) 16 13 2 2070 BS (2013 AD) 19 14 6 2071 BS (2014 AD) 24 16 8

SLC Pass Percentage of 2071 BS (2014 AD) was 75%.

RHEST and Looniva have been supporting the school for TLCs, teaching materials and emergency supports.

There’s a police station and a sub health post at Gimdi village, which is in a 30 minutes’ walking distance from the school. Another health post is in Ashrang VDC, at two and a half hours’ walking distance. CDMA and Smart networks have range over there. Most of the people in Gimdi use piped drinking water which comes directly from sources. The water is not purified. Electricity is available only for the evenings and it comes from local hydro plants.

The school is 75 km far from the district headquarter and connected with graveled road. You can take a regular bus or Tata Sumo from Chapagaun to Ashrang Bensi. Mini trucks carrying goods can be found frequently from there.