Sajid Irfan

The recent floods have destroyed about 19,000 schools in Pakistan that need to be rebuilt on a war footing to thwart the dropout of thousands of children, WealthPK reports.

The unprecedented monsoon rains and floods caused huge losses to different sectors in the country. The heavy rains were estimated 67% above the normal level. Due to the destruction of houses, 5,500 schools are being used as shelters by the flood victims.

Experts said that the government should establish more temporary learning centres (TLC) and alternate learning modalities throughout the country to save the precious time of students.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Education told WealthPK that the disastrous floods destroyed the education infrastructure very badly. He said that according to provincial education departments, nearly 670,000 students were affected in the country due to the destruction of schools by floods.

Sindh has been affected badly by the floods as nearly 16,000 schools have been completely destroyed in the province. Nearly 600 schools have been damaged in Balochistan and 1,180, schools have been affected in Punjab while 1,090 educational institutions have been damaged in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by floods.

Many schools in different areas of the country are still marooned in the floodwater and can’t be made functional.

“Thousands of students, who had been preparing for the start of the academic year, have found their schools completely submerged with books, blackboards, chairs and tables floating in the water. In the three provinces of the country, 15 universities are still stranded in the water and are unable to continue educational activities,” said the spokesperson.

He said that the recent floods left almost 40% of Pakistan’s landmass submerged and displaced about 33 million people. Besides claiming thousands of precious lives and causing huge economic losses, the floods have left the country’s fragile education system in tatters.

“According to a survey conducted by all district education officers, a total of 1,121 rooms, 264 washrooms, 188 boundary walls, 24 examination halls and 20 offices have been damaged by heavy rainfall and floods in Balochistan,” he said.

He said that 30 temporary learning centres (TLC) were established in the Pishin district of Balochistan for 3,600 students. One TLC has been established in Lasbela for 100 children. Education supplies for 35,000 children have already been assigned to Sindh and Punjab.

“Universities have taken some swift measures such as deferring collection of tuition fees for students in flood-hit areas. But universities have also been called upon to play a bigger role by taking part in relief activities and in long-term planning to avert such floods in the future,” the spokesperson for the Ministry of Education told WealthPK.

In a statement, Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Mukhtar Ahmed said that the collection of dues from students in flood-affected areas was stopped immediately and deferred for some time.

He stressed the need for following public-private partnership models and developing and implementing comprehensive remedial and accelerated learning programme in the flood-hit areas of the country.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk