The recent wave of floods has put the future of several thousand students of Assam at peril as 15000 schools in the state have received massive infrastructural damage.
With summer vacation coming to an end on Wednesday and the new academic session set to begin from Thursday, a lot of schools are yet to return to normalcy for they are being used as relief camps for the flood victims.
“The devastating floods have not just destroyed properties worth of crores and taken lives, but it has also pushed the future of several thousand students into darkness,” said All Assam Primary Teachers’ Association (APTA).
“With several schools still used as relief camps, it is almost certain that in many schools session won’t start on time,” APTA further said.
“Moreover, there are tonnes of silt deposit in many schools and some schools are still waterlogged. There lacks a proper environment for education,” APTA added.
The teachers’ body also informed of some schools being eroded away and swallowed by the ravaging rivers.
“Where will the students go and study when they don’t even have a school building?” asks APTA.
Even though there are hurdles in plenty, however, the administration is leaving no stone unturned in readying schools for Thursday.
Labourers are being used to clean school premises in many places in Kamrup, Nalbari, Barpeta, Dhubri, and Nagaon districts of the state.
Axom Sarba Siksha Abhiyan Mission’s Barpeta District Mission Coordinator Jyotsna Rani Barman, interacting with the media, said, “We are in a difficult position as the schools are set to reopen on August 1. Before that, the classrooms need to be cleaned as most of the schools were submerged in water.”
“Moreover, we can’t ignore the plight of the people who are living in relief camps set up inside the schools,” she added.
“Instructions were given to clean schools from where inmates had left. But we are also planning to hold classes in the empty rooms of those schools as well which are still used as relief camps,” she further said.
“Even though holding classes in such schools is not healthy, but we are left with no option,” she adds on.
Around 31,000 flood-affected people took shelter in relief camps in six districts- Barpeta, Chirang, Kamrup, Morigaon, Nagaon and Jorhat.
The big question here is, will schools open on time?