Cooking with Class

Nestled among the towering Himalayas is the Gandaki Boarding School, abbreviated as GBS. This school was established in Pokhara in 1966 by the local community in partnership with a Christian missionary group called the United Mission to Nepal. The Nepal government became involved as a sponsor in 1985. Since its founding, English has been the language of instruction.

The school opened with 45 boarding students. Now there are about 1150 students in the school, with nearly 650 boarders. The school starts at grade four, so students as young as nine years old live away from their homes.

The student body is organized into hostels, each named after a mountain peak. Students are responsible for keeping their hostel clean. They have to sweep the floors, scrub the washrooms, and work in the gardens.

Let’s Get Cooking

I’m a teacher at GBS who looks after the boy students in one of the hostels. Besides supervising daily maintenance, I run a cooking club. The main aim of the club is to give firsthand experience to the students about cooking.

I started this club because I have seen many boys who have completed university masters degrees without knowing how to cook food for themselves. So to help solve this situation, I have been running a cooking club in my hostel.

I have been getting very positive comments from the parents after eating the delicious food that their sons learned to prepare. This really encourages me in my pursuit.

Pokhara at sunset

In my opinion, the school must give well-rounded experiences to students. If we focus only on impractical knowledge, the learning will not be complete.

Currently, my students who have already graduated are now working and living in different parts of the world. Still today they remember those days in the hostel where they gained knowledge of cooking.

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