Approximately 300 students at the hostel of Gandaki Boarding School fell ill, reportedly due to food poisoning from Thursday night’s dinner.
Soon after eating, many students experienced vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, and stomach pain. They were taken to the school’s health center for primary treatment. Durga Timilsina, a health worker at the center, stated that around 300 students received treatment from Thursday night until Friday afternoon, including oral rehydration, anti-diarrheal, and gastric medications.
Vice Principal Krishna Bahadur Thapa expressed suspicion that the illness was caused by the food. “I have been working here for about 30 years, and such a large-scale incident has never occurred before,” he said, adding that most students have now recovered and no serious complications have been reported. A letter has been sent to the Pokhara Food and Quality Testing Center to check the quality of the food.
Students had consumed chicken for dinner, and those who ate chicken fell ill, while students who ate paneer did not face significant issues. Gandaki Boarding School in Lamachaur, Pokhara, has around 1,200 students, with 550 residing in hostels.
Many parents, alarmed by the sudden illness of their children, took them home. The school has 10 hostels for male and female students. Deepkaraj Paudel, a teacher at Dhaulagiri Hostel, stated that most students there were kept out of classes on Friday following the incident; the hostel alone houses 45 students.
Gandaki Boarding, operated under Guthi, had raised student fees by 25% from the current academic session. Parents had strongly protested the fee hike, arguing that promised improvements in food quality, teacher salaries, and infrastructure had not been observed, and they criticized the school administration for this negligence.
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