Kirti Boarding School at Nagaun in Kirtipur was established in 2038 BS. The headmaster here is Krishna Prasad Upadhyaya. He has spent about 25 years in the teaching profession.
He never thought that he would take up the teaching profession in his life. He had a dream of becoming an English newscaster on Radio Nepal. However, time brought him to the field of education. Gradually, he began to enjoy it. Now he thinks that he will continue to distribute education for the rest of his life.
Childhood and education
Krishna Prasad Upadhyaya was born on September 8, 2030 BS. Mukli VDC of Solukhumbu is his birthplace. Upadhyaya, who was the third son in the family, spent his childhood there. Born into a Brahmin family, he received his traditional education at home. That was the custom then. No one in his family went to school. He was the first to go to school. In that sense, he is lucky.
Upadhyaya was enrolled in class 1 at Tribhuvan Vidyodaya Primary School in Maidel, Solukhumbu. He was only six years old at the time. He studied there till class 5. He became the first in all the classes. This encouraged him to read more.
That school was up to class 5. Then he went to Narendraodaya Lower Secondary School in Bhumesthan of Mukli. There he was enrolled in class 6. Probably due to the change of school, he could not be there first. But they did not weaken. I studied there till class 7. After that, he enrolled in class 8 at Jeevan Jyoti Secondary School in Nelle. From the same school he passed SLC in 2048. He was one of only two candidates from his VDC.
At that time, there was not much television. It was the time of radio. Upadhyaya used to listen to English news coming from Radio Nepal. He thought that he would read English and read news on Radio Nepal. He was very impressed by Rabin Sharma’s speech.
Carrying the same dream, he went to Pokhara in 2049 BS to study English at Prithvinarayan Campus. The first year is over. Until then, he did not think that he would become a teacher or start a teaching profession. However, in the second year of his studies, he saw other friends working with him and he also wanted to work. He told a teacher named Mohan Khanal that he liked to work. After that, he started teaching at Saraswati Adarsh Vidya Shram in Lamachaur, Pokhara in 2050 BS. This is where his teaching career began. Taught there for about five years. Along with teaching, he also completed his bachelor’s degree from Prithvinaran Campus.
Upadhyay, who aims to read English news, did not seem to be interested in teaching. He began to rejoice in it. Along with his BA, he came to Kathmandu in 2058 BS to do his Masters. In Kathmandu too, he started teaching at Maharajgunj-based Skims College through friends. He also started working as a coordinator. He taught there for about seven years. He could not continue his postgraduate work. Only in 2001 did he pass the population subject.
Skims was not the only college. Skims Public School was also in operation under its management. He became the headmaster of the same school. From this he decided to pursue a teaching career. He then started teaching part-time population at Zenith English Secondary School in Baffle and Mount Glory International Boarding High School in Basundhara.
Responsibility of the headmaster
Even after gaining experience in the teaching profession for a long time, he did not think of opening his own school. He was told by a friend that he should run an organization in such a way that it would last forever. In 2065, he made some investment in Kirti Boarding School. Became headmaster. This journey started from there and continues till today.
Upadhyaya has the experience of being close to the children when he is a teacher, but when he is the headmaster, he has to behave a little harder to keep everyone in discipline. Therefore, the responsibility of the headmaster is a bit difficult and challenging, he says, “It is very challenging for the headmaster to take care of everything from the management of children, parents, society, teachers and physical infrastructure.”
Problems and solutions in the education sector
Upadhyaya says that there are many problems in the overall education sector of the country. He says, ‘It is not possible to say what the problems are in the education sector. However, the state should not discriminate in the education sector. He also denied that the new education policy brought by the government has provided scholarships to the students studying in government schools from class 6 onwards. He said that the state has only taken measures to increase the number of students in government schools. You have to be able to give good education to attract students. ‘ For this, he suggested that there should be a strict headmaster who can bind the teachers and the whole school to the rules.
He said that the quality of education in government schools has not improved as politics is the norm in government schools. He is of the view that if the state wants to improve the educational quality of government schools, it will not make any difference even if the headmasters of the institutional schools are contracted for some time. He says, “When there is a headmaster who can control everyone and discipline them, then the educational quality of the school itself improves.”