Flood forces closure of schools

Nepalgunj, September 3 :

Schools in flood-affected areas of Banke are closed since a week. Some schools are being used as shelters by people displaced from floods whereas most students are unable to go to schools as their books were swept away in the flood.

Schools in the flood-affected areas are yet to reopen. Nearly all the schools in Holiya, Betahani and Gangapur VDCs are closed after the floods.

Rina Harijan, a student of class four at Janata Primary School of Holiya said, “All books and copies were swept away in the flood.”

Mina Kumari Harijan, a student of class seven at Pashupati Lower Secondary School at Naurigaudi is also not going to her school after the flood.

Mina said, “There is no certainty of getting food, so why to go school? My bicycle, books and copies were swept away in the flood.”

Mina’s parents are also sheltering in the school after the flood. Mina’s guardian Ram Pyare Harijan said, “We are living on beaten rice. How do we send our children to their schools’. Ram Pyare said, adding,”We are staying in schools ourselves. How do we expect the schools to open?”

A teacher of Janata Primary School, Sabitram Barma said, “Teachers go to the school, but the students don’t come there; students don’t have anything to eat, how will they come to school?” Barma said, adding that he himself was displaced by the flood.

A dozen schools in Banke including Nepal Rastriya Primary School at Chupheri, Janata Primary School at Piprahawa, Nepal Rastriya Primary School at Supri, Nepal Rastriya Primary School at Santaliya, Bhojpur Lower Secondary School are closed following the flood.

Though some schools have opened, no student is attending class. Some flood victims are sheltering in a few schools while many other schools are choc-a-bloc with mud.

Chief District Education Officer, Chudamani Poudel said, schools in flood-affected areas are closed. It is not clear how many schools are lying closed after the flood. Poudel said a team has been sent to find out about the condition of the area and that any actual information would be received by Monday.