Achham, Oct. 30 -- What once began as a promising drive to expand technical education across Achham, a hill district of Sudurpaschim Province, has now faltered, with most secondary schools closing their technical and vocational programmes due to a lack of resources, trainers, and students.

A few years ago, several schools in the district obtained accreditation from the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) and introduced diploma courses in civil engineering, agriculture, and animal science. The initiative initially drew local youths eager to acquire practical skills without leaving their communities. But today, many of those programmes lie dormant.

"Both our civil and geomatic engineering diploma programmes hav...