Anganwadi workers take classes at a flood relief camp in Bihar’s Purnea district. File picture

Bhagalpur, Oct. 5: “Badhar par ek nibandha likho” (Write an essay on floods) — was all that was left on a blackboard put up on a ruined wall at the government primary school at Mansoha in Saharsa’s Sonversa block.

“Most of the walls, roof and even the furniture were washed away by floodwater last month,” said Pratap Rishidev, a Class V student of the school.

For Pratap and more than 4 lakh others in nine eastern Bihar districts — torn to shreds by the sudden breach in the Kosi on August 18 — it will be years before they have another school building, classrooms, books, chairs and tables. And by then, it can be too late for Pratap and his friends.

More than 4 lakh schoolchildren in 36 blocks in the flood-hit districts in the Kosi basin were deprived of their schooling after the disaster, said Bijoy and Anand, the activists of Kosi Andolon — a Saharsa-based voluntary organisation.

In Supaul district, more than 558 school buildings were completely damaged.

While 24 government schools in the district have been converted into temporary relief camps for the flood victims, more than 419 teachers were engaged into relief works in the district.

Similarly, over 24 government schools in Araria district were closed after the floods. “We have initiated to compile the exact figure in the districts. Since relief and rescue operations became our top priority, the exact figure of damage to such schools was yet not possible,” said Hemchandra Sirohi, the Kosi divisional commissioner.

Not only the schools, colleges under Bhupendra Narayan Mandal University, Madhepura, were also affected by the Kosi floods.

According to R.P. Srivastava, the vice-chancellor of the university, eight colleges in Madhepura and Supaul were completely damaged because of floods.

The university has 27 affiliated and 32 constituent colleges of which half were either damaged or temporarily converted into relief camps.

According to Srivastava, more than 50,000 college students under the university were hit by the floods.

“The university has requested the district administrations concerned to take initiatives for shifting the flood evacuees to the mega relief camps from the colleges so that the environment of education can be restored,” he said.

Till date, the flood has affected lakhs of people in the northern part of the state rendering several thousand homeless and claiming lives of hundreds.