Mobile Normal Schools in Nepal

Abstract

THE SETTING NEPAL IS A SMALL, INDEPENDENT KINGDOM, lying astride the backbone of the Himalayas in Central Asia. One hundred miles wide, five hundred long, she serves as a buffer between India on the south and Tibet (now part of Communist China) on the north. Her terrain is rugged: along the Indian border there are dense jungles; in the middle band there are hundreds of valleys surrounded by two-mile high foothills; in the north is the Tundra region of the high Himalayas and the high peaks. The country has been sliced into sectors north and south by several major river systems which have cut deep gorges, and with their various tributaries have compounded, even more than the mountains, the problems of transportation. In spite of these obstacles, the people have built an extensive network of trails during the past I,ooo years, but there are still less than 300 miles of jeepable roads in an area of 55,000 square miles. Since many of the trails have no permanent bridges across the rivers, transportation (and communications) virtually ceases for about three months during the summer monsoon period. In 1952, it took as long as thirty days to travel from the capital to some parts of the kingdom. Now, thanks to a dozen landing strips hacked out of the mountain sides and some war-surplus Dakotas, the time has been shortened to 5-10 days for most areas, and fifteen for a place like Namche Bazaar at the foot of Mt. Everest. Furthermore, two-way radio communication sets are being installed at the thirty-two district headquarters villages. Nepal has a rural economy. Of her 28,000 villages and towns, only six have more than 0,000ooo people; 96 per cent of them have less than 500. Ninety-three per cent of her labour