Students walk up to 2 hours to attend their classes at Terse Higher Secondary School located in Ward no. 8 of Melamchi Municipality in Sindhupalchowk. With a capacity to accommodate over 100 students, tent-based hostel facility is being arranged for the students in need.

Established in 2047 BS (1990 AD), the school had no concrete building and temporary classrooms were made using local raw materials in the initial phase. ActionAid Nepal had helped them construct a six-roomed building. It ran primary level classes for 13 years and was eventually upgraded as a higher secondary school in 2014 AD.

There are 610 students (294 boys and 316 girls) studying there currently. 30 out of 570 students dropped out in 2070 BS (2013 AD) while 36 out of 623 students dropped out the next year. A total of 23 teachers (12 male and 11 female) are teaching in the school. TFN Fellows have been teaching there since 2014 AD. SMC and PTA both are functioning properly at the school.

The students belong to ethnic backgrounds like Tamang and Dalit and most of them follow Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity. Most of them are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. The VDC has 96% literacy rate.

There is just a health post in the vicinity, which doesn’t have proper health facilities. People have access to a police station and NTC and NCell mobile services are available. Factories and industries haven’t been established yet. As for the school’s infrastructures, there is a playground, a library, a science lab and a computer lab with 14 computers. There is no math lab. There aren’t enough desks/benches for the students. All the classrooms have access to whiteboards. WASH facility is improving; there are separate toilets for boys and staff and girls’ toilet is under construction. However, there is no proper facility of clean drinking water. Electricity is available through national grid. The school owns 12 shutters and they are in rent; this is the major source of income.

Number of students who appeared in the SLC Examinations in the last three years and pass percentage:

The school is approximately 50 km away from Sankhu. You can take a bus from Narayantar for route through Sankhu.

Earthquake Impact
During the earthquake, 3 students of the school lost their lives. The physical infrastructures of the school have been severely damaged. Not a single classroom is safe for the students to sit in and study as they are about to collapse so they need to be reconstructed. The toilets aren’t in good condition, either. Reconstruction of the compound wall is also required.

Caritas Nepal, Child Nepal, RHEST, TEAM Nepal and Helvetas Nepal are providing various supports to the school.