The COVID-19 pandemic affected numerous learners around the world including Nepalese school children. These children experienced educational disruption arising from long school closures. Among other various educational models practiced during the COVID-19 pandemic to minimise such disruption, the use of ICT in education played an instrumental role. While a limited number of studies explore the use of technology during the pandemic in Nepalese secondary schools, none have yet explored in any depth how ICT was used and what affordances, i.e. action potentials of ICT, teachers perceived and acted upon. This study uses activity theory and the theory of affordances as a conceptual and methodological framework to explore the use of ICT in education during the COVID-19 pandemic in secondary schools and whether emerging affordances were acted upon by secondary school teachers. Remote classroom observations, focus groups and interviews with a variety of stakeholders were analysed using an activity theory-inspired coding scheme. The analysis indicates that a range of different educational practices such as Tole education, online teaching and learning among others were implemented during the COVID-19 crisis situation. Tole education is a neighbourhood-based approach that gathers children in a central location at the designated place (Tole) and holds regular learning sessions where pupils gather in small groups. Issues such as technological breakdowns, a shortage of good quality internet access at home, lack of engagement on the part of pupils, limited digital skills of teachers hindered the success of teaching during the pandemic. However, in attempts to resolve these issues, educational stakeholders such as teachers engaged with new initiatives. Consequently, educational and technological affordances emerged. Analysis of these emerging issues and affordances sheds light on issues and concerns pertaining to educational disruption in crisis situations and aids the framing of educational policies in such contexts.