Homes turn schools in two flood-hit Jalandhar villages

Tribune News Service

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Jalandhar, September 12

There no blackboards to write on and no desks to sit on, and students of six classes (pre-primary and classes I-V) are made to sit in a single room.

Besides, in the absence of mid-day meal, students eat langar provided by Good Samaritans. But despite all this, there is one thing which is not missing, zeal to teach and to study. Mundi Shehrian and Dhakka Basti villages bear testimony to this as students’ home have been turned into schools.

Two schools in flood-hit Lohian, Government Primary School (GPS), Mundi Shehrian, and GPS, Dhakka Basti, remained submerged for almost two months. But classes of both schools are still being held in students’ homes.

Although water has receded now and the process of cleaning has started, it may take another week to open the schools. The school staff will be able to assess losses only after that.

Teachers of both schools did not want studies of students to suffer, so parents of students provided them with space to teach.

To accommodate approximately 40 students from all classes in just one room is definitely a task for the teachers, but looking at the situation, they say that they had no other option.

Pooja, a teacher from GPS, Mundi Shehrian, said that cleanliness work in the school had already started, but the school ground was still inundated. “We will ensure that there is proper cleanliness and then willstart the school for the students. Right now, we are managing in one room, because we do not want the students to suffer academic loss,” she added.

Here, the students also get their lunch, which is managed and provided to them by people from outside.

The head teacher of GPS, Dhakka Basti, said that the house of the mid-day meal worker who works in the school is right next to the one where they are holding classes. “He provides food to the students in the house itself,” the teacher said.

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