Seated on a chair, one of the rare pieces of furniture to escape the fury of the devastating floods, T.V. Jaljakumari, Principal of Govt. H.S.S., Chowara near Aluva, pointed towards a nearby wall.
“Water rose to about three feet and destroyed all our school registers, laptops, printers and generators,” said the Principal even as she was stopped midway by one of her students Hiba Parveen, a Plus One student of bio-maths batch, who walked in glum-faced. “Sir, I lost all my textbooks and notebooks in the floods,” she said as tears started rolling down her cheeks.
Many such stories were to follow as teachers and students started streaming into the campus after almost a fortnight-long break on Wednesday morning following a tragedy that turned lives upside down. The raging waters didn’t spare the stitching centre, which the school had entrusted with for providing uniform for students, either as it was also submerged.
“The classrooms were in bad shape as we came back on August 20. Later, we together dried up whatever was left,” said Sreekanth K.S, a botany teacher. Though the first period started at 9.30 a.m. as usual, it was hard to miss the signs, which screamed out that normalcy was some distance away. Just outside the classroom, teachers had laid out numerous books, CDs and records drenched in floodwaters to dry along the verandah.
M.K. Sita, Headmistress of the high school section, was not around as we walked into her room. She had gone to source a gas stove on rent from somewhere, said computer teacher Vasana Babu. “We need one immediately for giving mid-day meals to our students as our stove was damaged in the floods. The water had laid waste the stock of rice as well,” said Ms. Babu even as Manu, a daily wage labourer and a resident of Kuzhipallam thodu, approached her along with his children, Manjesh of Class 5 and Mahi of Class 7. “Teacher, we lost their uniform and books in the water. Hope you will replace it,” he said expectantly.
Ms. Babu assured him that a list of students with lost uniforms, notebooks and textbooks will be drawn up soon.
Emotional support
The teachers had a different task for the day from their routine work as the Education Department had asked them to engage students in activities for their mental relaxation. They were also planning to request students unaffected by the floods to help the affected ones with their notes and support them emotionally.
Some seven kilometres away at the Rajashree S.M.M. School in East Kadungallur, where classes were yet to begin, Susan John, Principal, was busy cleaning up the ground floor, which looked wasted once the flood waters receded.
“Nearly 35 computers, furniture and other equipment got damaged as water surged to over five feet. We could not reopen today as a major clean-up is under way. About 90% of our teachers and students were also affected by the floods,” she said when Aneesh, a student of Class 10, joined us with his friends. He was part of the student team involved in drying up the classrooms. “We are hopeful of making a comeback through hard work. Many of our friends wanted to join the cleaning work. But they are busy clearing the mud that piled up in their own homes,” he said. Ms. John said that they plan to start special classes for students of Classes 10 and 12 from Thursday while the sessions for Classes 9 to 12 will begin from Monday.
Many things had to be set right in the aftermath of the floods, among which were a well and a tank used to store water. As we left the campus, a batch of teachers and non-teaching staff were busy with the cleaning work undaunted by the challenge ahead.
