25 damaged schools to operate from other buildings: DSEK
In the likelihood of all educational institutions opening on 9th March, the department of education is giving finishing touches to the schools that were affected during floods last September.
The heavily affected schools have been sealed whereas for other structures necessary certificates have been obtained from the Roads and Buildings (R&B) department.
“As many as 63 schools were heavily affected by the floods. They were under observation for possible sinking or developing of cracks,” said Showkat Beigh, Director school education Kashmir. “Of them 38 have been cleared by the R&B department for normal functioning. Rest of them have been ordered to be sealed with immediate effect.”
For 25 such sealed schools, the department has arranged space in other buildings. “At places where there was another government school nearby, we just clubbed the two. On other places we had to rent a private building for the functioning of the affected school,” said Beigh. “At places where there was neither of the options available, we decided to operate two schools in a single building in two shifts. So one school will operate from 8 am to 1 pm and another school from 2 pm to 5 pm.”
To eliminate the chances of any risk of infection, the department had to take extensive repair of the flood affected schools. The total number of schools affected by floods was 264 whose entire furniture and at some places entire record was damaged. “We followed all the safety protocols, repaired the furniture and got new one wherever the repair was not possible,” said Beigh. “The furnishings, stationery and related accessories were also taken care of too. The schools were advised to use the local funds available in their offices for the purpose.”
The schools were also thoroughly cleaned and fumigated as per the post-flood instructions from experts. However even as the department seems to have taken care of negative effects of floods, the situation with regards to swine flu remains unclear. Other than health advisory for students there is no word for department as to whether students need to be vaccinated or not. “We had written to health department exploring whether we need to take any more steps to safeguard our children,” said Beigh. “We hope to receive their expert advice soon and we will go accordingly.”
