Surkhet/kalikot, May 7 -- For Jayanti Baral, a sixth grader at Badimalika Secondary School in Raskot Municipality, Kalikot, the start of the new academic session used to be a period of worry rather than excitement.

In previous years, the arrival of spring in the high hills of Karnali, the country's remotest province, rarely coincided with the arrival of new textbooks. Instead, Jayanti and her peers would spend the first few months of the academic year sharing tattered volumes or waiting for shipments that often stalled in the lower places.

This year, however, the narrative has shifted. As she stood in the school courtyard holding a complete set of textbooks, Jayanti could hardly contain her joy. "Last year, I finished the fifth grade us...