KOCHI:With the district’s schools reopening on Wednesday after the floods, the Education Department has made arrangements to ensure students’ transition to normalcy is smooth. Over the next few days, counselling will be arranged for the students upon reaching schools.
“Most of the students lost their belongings and homes,” says Deputy Director of Education (DDE) C A Santhosh. “They went through a lot of emotional trauma and are worried about continuing studies without their books and study materials. We will be giving them tips on ways to relax and boost confidence,” he says.As for the textbooks and uniforms, an assessment will be done once schools reopen.
“We have enough books in the depot and there is also a surplus at the Kerala Books and Publications Society,” Santhosh says. “We will also provide students with uniforms as soon as possible. A few agencies have also agreed to supply notebooks, instrument boxes and school bags. This will all happen within a week,” he says. Around 117 schools in the district were affected by floods. Of them, relief camps were opened in 140 schools. Most of the flood-affected schools are in the Paravur and Aluva areas.
“All the relief camps in the district were closed by Monday. We have finished the cleaning process,” says Santhosh. “The schools which were opened as relief camps were mostly left clean. The cleaning process at the flood-affected schools was done by Education Department officers, teachers, volunteers and NGOs,” he says.
According to the Education Department, all government and aided schools are ready to begin functioning from Wednesday. “In certain rare cases where toilets are still inoperable or there is unavailability of potable water, the department will take alternative measures,” says Santhosh.