The Nepal earthquake in April 2015 was one of the most destructive with death toll of more than 9,000 and almost 500,000 houses and other infrastructures including school buildings destroyed. A strong aftershock in May caused even further causalities and damage.

A Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) was undertaken jointly by the Government of Nepal and its development partners to identify the areas on which a major recovery is required. One of the sectors considered in the overall PDNA is Education. There is an urgent need for rehabilitation and reconstruction of effected infrastructure for education sector, including the school buildings and facilities.

 The Asian Development Bank (ADB), one of the development agencies helping Nepal address the immediate and medium term impacts of the damage, approved a $200 million loan to finance the Earthquake Emergency Assistance Project (EEAP). The project will support rebuilding of schools, roads, and district-level government buildings, and strengthening resilience to future disasters.

 In line with this, ADB has engaged a team of experts to provide technical assistance for the post disaster management, specifically aimed at school buildings. ADB Nepal Resident Mission (NRM) engaged Dr. Naveed Anwar through the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) to provide overall guidelines for developing the type design for various types of school buildings, facilities, and related physical infrastructure for post-earthquake reconstruction of schools in 14 most affected districts.

 As part of the project, site visits were conducted to get a realistic view as well as to get first-hand information on the extent of damage to the schools in various districts of Nepal. Based on initial findings, standardized design and details were developed so that consistency and up scaling can be achieved before applying this strategy to a very large number of schools in a short time. Guidelines for the type design of schools and for structural design were also developed as part of the assignment. This effort is likely to contribute to the overall aim of the Nepal government and its development partners to significantly improve the disaster resilience of schools.