Pradhan, Uma; (2023) (Re)constructing a 'Good' School: Materials, Affects, and Meanings of Education in Post-earthquake. In: Valentin, Karen and Pradhan, Uma, (eds.) Anthropological Perspectives on Education in Nepal: Educational Transformations and Avenues of Learning. (pp. 251-276). Oxford University Press (OUP): Oxford, UK.

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Abstract

On 25 April 2015, a massive earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale hit Nepal. More than 16,000 schools, about half of the country’s total, were damaged or destroyed. Disaster of this magnitude disproportionately affected the state education system, with government schools accounted for 92 per cent of the total damage. This chapter analyses the reconstruction of government schools, after the 2015 earthquake, to understand how new school structures contribute to shape educational experiences and education governance. Drawing on the ethnographic fieldwork in a government school in Nepal, this chapter will explore how the rebuilding of the schools shapes discourses around the nature of education, especially given the prevailing narrative of failing government education system in Nepal. These shiny new ‘resort-like’ buildings play an important role in shaping the aspirations of the teachers, parents, and students; albeit in different ways. These aspirations are utilized to make a variety of changes: entrance exams for admission, selection of student, the introduction of new textbooks, the emphasis on English language, etc. Using post-crisis reconstruction as an analytical space, this chapter elaborates on how physical infrastructures can function as spaces for the governance of everyday life at school. Within this framework, infrastructure and its design reveal both visible and invisible ways in which physical objects are inextricably linked with the meanings that they bring to social lives.

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