Free health insurance to families of public school students

Waling (Syangja), Jan 15: Chapakot municipality of Syangja has come up with a scheme to provide free insurance to the families of the children studying in public schools.
The idea of free health insurance has been taken ahead to attract parents and students to the public schools that have witnessed declining trend of enrolment lately.

Chapakot municipality mayor Dev Bahadur Khand informed that the 14th municipal assembly has endorsed a proposal to provide free health insurance to the families of poor, disadvantaged and genius students studying in different public schools.

According to him, the free health insurance program will play a role in preventing the tendency of going to the market to educate their children or going to big cities with facilities. “Providing free health insurance to parents or households who send children to community schools will help in treatment,” he said, adding, “The attraction of parents and students towards community schools increases.”.

The municipality has made necessary preparation to develop a work procedure and implement the scheme.

The municipality has decided to pay a minimum sum of Rs 3,500 for the family members of poor, extremely poor and genius children studying in 45 public schools in the municipality. With this amount, a family of up to five people will be able to spend Rs 100,000 for treatment for a period of one year.

In case of more than five people, the municipality will add Rs 700 per person. According to Education Section Chief Bandana Gurung, Chapakot municipality has 16 secondary schools, five primary level (1-8), 14 basic (1-5) and 10 basic (1-3). At present, around 5,000 students are studying in 45 community schools in 10 wards of the municipality. (RSS)