KATHMANDU, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Department of Education (DoE)which has started handing over the government schools to the community management since 2003, has so far handed over 6,590 schools, local media reported on Tuesday.

    Of the total schools handed over, the department had given its recognition to 4,762 pre-primary, 1,249 primary and 579 secondary schools to be undertaken and managed under the management of the community, said local newspaper The Rising Nepal.

    Although the task of handing over the schools by the department is getting positive response from the communities and the guardians, the aim of handing over a total of 8,000 government schools by the end of September to community management is hard to achieve, said DoE officials.

    The department had aimed to hand over 8,000 schools to the community by the end of this September. But there is only a month before the deadline comes to an end, thus meeting the target is quite difficult, they said.

    When any school is handed over to the community management, such schools would get some 1,500 U.S. dollars to 4,500 U.S. dollars from the government.

    The World Bank provided a grant of 5.11 million U.S. dollars to the project when it first started in 2003.