Chitwan, May 8 -- A small community school founded 57 years ago in Bajarahatti of Rapti Municipality-8, Chitwan, reached a milestone when its students sat the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) this year.

Eight students, all deaf and unable to speak, appeared in the SEE after years of effort by teachers, parents and other stakeholders determined to keep the children in school.

For Principal Mithu Kumari Pathak Dallakoti, the moment was emotional. "We started teaching children with hearing and speech disabilities in 1997. This year, we finally managed to take them to the SEE," said Dallakoti.

The school, established in 1969, initially managed only grades 1 and 2. It started teaching up to grade 5 in 1983. In 1997, it opened a class f...