Kesar Khulal
Principal of Budhanilkantha School
I am Kesar Khulal, Principal of Budhanilkantha School. I must say that what I am now, to a great extent, is because of the British Council. British Council, Budhanilkantha School and I, are so closely connected that I cannot introduce myself without talking about Budhanilkantha School or the British Council.
Budhanilkantha School was donated by the British Government and the British Council has been connected to it right from its inception. My professional career developed because of Budhanilkantha School and a British Council scholarship.
Budhanilkantha School was established with the intention of providing international education to all meritorious students from every walk of life, from the poorest to the richest. I happened to be amongst the lucky ones to win the government scholarship from Terathum to study at Budhanilkantha. When I finished my A levels I was offered a scholarship to do my undergraduate as well as PGC in the United Kingdom.
As a fulfillment of my commitment to this scholarship, I came back to Budhanilkantha School and started teaching – it’s been 23 years now. I am so happy that finally I am leading this institution and that is all because of the British Council scholarship.
Budhanilkantha School has benefited a lot from its connection with the British Council and the British government in particular. As I said earlier, it was started by the British Government in 1964. The Nepalese government made a formal request to HRH the Queen of England. Following which Lynndon Clough, the British Council representative to Nepal, was consulted and under his advice, the British Government agreed to build the school in Nepal.
Budhanilkantha School was run by British Headmasters back then, in fact, many of the teachers were British. Some of these teachers worked there for more than 20 years. When the time came to hand the school over to the Nepal Government and Nepali management, a brilliant strategy was devised. The British government in association with the British Council decided to send several teachers and A level students for graduate studies to the UK. The idea was to train them and send them back - I am one of those students. Not only that, the British Council sent many Nepali teachers to the UK for at least a year to undergo training programs. A lot of the credit for the national and international reputation that the school has earned goes to the British Council.