Guwahati: For over 10 days, teachers of Santak High School in flood-hit Sivasagar have traded chalk and blackboards for shovels and buckets, taking on the unlikely role of sanitation workers. With govt cleaners yet to arrive despite repeated assurances, five teachers at the school, which has nearly 500 students, have been battling thick layers of mud, silt, and debris to make classrooms usable again.State education minister Ranoj Pegu on Tuesday said schools across flood-affected areas of Assam will resume regular classes after Aug 15. But at Santak High School in Nazira, teachers are racing against time to make the campus functional. Established in 1960, the school remained submerged for several days after floodwaters entered the campus on July 19, leaving classrooms buried under thick layers of silt and damaging records, documents, and library books.“I have knee and lower back pain, but we have no choice,” said head teacher Dipti Gogoi, after finishing her cleaning duties on Tuesday. Floodwaters had risen above the school boundary, inundating its 14 classrooms and several office rooms. “Only about half the classrooms have been cleaned so far,” she said. “We want to start classes for Class X students at the earliest since they will sit for board examinations early next year. We cannot wait for other workers,” she added.Besides five teachers, two non-teaching staff are also helping with the cleanup.“The library almirahs remain unopened and caked in mud. So far, only the office almirahs have been cleared,” Gogoi said, adding that despite assurances that PWD workers would clean the campus, they are yet to arrive.About half a dozen flood-hit govt schools in Nazira and Bihubar remain badly affected, though the district administration has begun deploying workers to clean some campuses. Several access roads in Sivasagar remain inundated three weeks after the floods, keeping students away from school in many areas.School Cluster Resource Centre coordinator for the area, Rupam Gogoi, said more cleaning is needed, but schools are prioritising classrooms to resume teaching. “Teachers are also busy conducting government-mandated damage assessments, adding to the challenge,” he said.Near the Nagaland border, Nepali Khuti’s lone govt school may take several more days to reopen. Ruhiteswar Saikia LP School head teacher Utpal Boruah said mud was still chest-deep in classrooms on Tuesday after floodwaters rose above the tin roof within minutes.“Our campus is now buried under wood and debris, while erosion has brought the Dikhou river to within five metres of the school, from about 300 metres earlier. Such is the devastation. We are helpless,” Boruah said.
