Punjab floods: Schools turn a place for collaborative healing for students of border villages

For 16-year-old Gurpreet Singh, life is not the same. It probably never was. After the chaos caused by the devastating floods, he is scrambling to find a sense of normalcy and his school provides it with a side of security, at least for the six-odd hours in a day. A student of Class X at Government Senior Secondary School, Gaggomahal, Gurpreet has lost most of his books in the chaos of floods, but hopes to complete the academic session and take boards.

“We have lost everything. My house has big cracks and one of the walls has sunken keeping us worried every minute whether it may fall. I was looking forward to coming to school, I have my friends here. They too have stories like mine,” he said. Gurpreet hails from Bedi Chinna village, a few kilometres away from Gaggomahal and this is the only senior secondary school nearest to his village. While Gurpreet wants to complete his studies, his elder brother Sarabjeet has to make a hard choice.

“I have to drop out now that I am working as a daily wage earner. We lost our father and elder brother to accidents and after them, I am the only one who can provide for the family,” shared Sarabjeet. The brothers have an elder sister, who studied till Class V and now helps their elderly mother at home.

“We don’t know how things will be but I really want to complete school,” said teary-eyed Gurpreet when asked to recall the floods.

Post floods, schools have become a vital space for recovery, learning and healing for children. This is the reason why most of the primary and senior secondary schools across the affected border belt in Ajnala and Ramdas has high attendance after the schools reopened. Despite the children losing their books in the floods, the spirit and determination to learn and continue their studies has never been stronger for them.

“I was waiting for my school to open. When I was at home, I used to feel scared that I might not see my friends again or if my parents would shift us to my maternal aunt’s village nearby. We were staying there till the water in our home receded,” said Sharandeep Kaur, a Class VIII student of Government School, Pandori.

While schools are trying to help prevent the disruption in education and rebuild a community scattered by the floods, it’s a collaborative recovery. Many schools have been damaged in floods and now have to rely on locals’ help to sustain. Like the Government Primary Smart School, Kotli Korotana, a quaint village just a few kilometres away from the International Border in Ajnala. With 28 students, most of whom belong to the village and had their belongings and homes washed away in floods, the two teachers at the school made sure that return to school was not just comfortable but also reaffirming.

“We had to make sure that we run the classes for the first two days after re-opening at the local gurdwara so that the children are not discouraged from returning to school. The school has incurred a lot of damage, our kitchen and two classrooms have a lot of water seepage and structural damage. But we are making sure that kids do not feel any discomfort,” said Sukhbir Singh, head teacher at the school. They are also talking to parents and ensuring they serve the mid-day meal to kids despite the disruption.