Calls in Nepal for return of in-person schooling

Students across Nepal lined up to pray at the temple of a Hindu goddess on Sunday as the country celebrated the annual Basant Panchami festival.

The goddess Saraswati is considered to be the deity of wisdom, knowledge and learning. Students would normally be celebrating the festival in their schools but this year they were all at home. On Sunday, schools demanded the government open up physical classes that have been shut down for weeks, even as the number of COVID-19 cases began to decline. Teachers say online education was limited to only a small part of the population living in the urban parts of the Himalayan country, with a majority of students deprived of their chance to learn. Nepal has fully vaccinated 52% of the population that includes students and children aged 12 and above.