One week after the flood, many schools in Nghe An still cannot welcome students.back to school

Clean up as the water recedes.

Today, October 5, hundreds of teachers, parents, local authorities and functional departments of Lam Thanh commune went to many schools in the commune to clean up and overcome damage after the recent storm and flood.

Ms. Hoa Thi Dung, living in Hamlet 7, said: I am a parent whose child is studying in the 2-year-old class of Chau Nhan Kindergarten. Yesterday, the school announced on Zalo about the flooding situation at the school and hoped that parents would join the school in cleaning up. At this point, the water in my house has not receded completely, but I still took the time to come and support the school.

Chau Nhan Kindergarten is located outside the Lam River dike and is an area affected by floods all year round. However, the flood that occurred right after storm No. 10 still surprised the school's teachers, leaving them unable to react. "When we heard the news aboutstorm number 10, the school also cleaned up books, supplies, and toys to high places to avoid the storm. However, the day after the storm, the water suddenly rose, submerging the entire school in more than 1 meter of water and even flooding into the classrooms. For nearly a week, our school has been submerged in floodwaters, this morning the water began to recede, the school has just started cleaning up - Ms. Nguyen Thi Linh, the school's principal added.

According to Ms. Linh, learning from previous floods, the cleanup work was carried out promptly as the water receded over the past two days. However, after the flood passed, the school's property was swept away and damaged quite a bit.

All the outdoor toys were no longer usable. The artificial grass system installed in the school yard was also torn. In the classroom, the equipment and toys were soaked with rainwater.

The school leaders said that although the cleaning is being done urgently, it will be at least next Wednesday before classes can return to normal: After cleaning the entire school grounds, tomorrow morning we will proceed to spray disinfectant and mosquito spray. Because the school has been submerged in water for too long, if it is not cleaned, preschool students will be susceptible to pink eye.

At Pham Hong Thai Primary School, it is expected that students in the area will be able to go to school on Tuesday morning at the earliest.
Returning to school after a week of being submerged in floodwaters, teacher Phan Thi My - homeroom teacher of class 3B2 was heartbroken to see that all the books, notebooks, and teaching equipment in the classroom had been completely damaged.

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I have been teaching at the school for over 20 years but there has never been a flood as severe as the last one, the water level rose more than 2 meters into the classroom. Therefore, although I have put all the students' books up high, I still cannot save them. I am also worried because my class has 28 students but more than half of their houses are also flooded and their books are certainly washed away and torn. I do not know what they will use to study when they return to school.

Teacher Phan Thi My - Pham Hong Thai Primary School

Participating in the support work, Ms. Cao Thi Hang - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Lam Thanh Commune Party Committee said: Storm No. 10 caused many schools in the commune to have their roofs blown off, damaged or submerged in floodwater. Even at this time, the water in schools in Hung Loi Commune, the former Hung Nguyen District, has not yet receded and we are urgently mobilizing forces to join hands to support the school. We will try to have students return to school early next week.

Not safe yet

Located in a low-lying area and near Lam River, for the past week, 16/16 schools in the commune have not been able to return to school because the schools are deeply flooded.

In addition, the students’ way to school was also cut off because all the hamlets in the commune were flooded, the roads were cut off. Even this morning, although the flood had begun to recede, in many hamlets such as Mai Dinh, Phu Lap, Yen Son, Xuan Lien, Xuan Hien, Kim Hoa… people still had to travel by boat. In the whole commune, only a few hamlets had electricity, and people’s lives had not yet returned to normal.

Regarding the plan to return to school, teacher Dang Anh Dung - Principal of Thanh Mai Secondary School said: Up to now, the cleaning of the school has been basically completed and the school has notified all students to go to school on Monday morning. However, the school also determined that the number of students going to school on the first days of the week will not be full because many hamlets are still flooded and students will have difficulty going to school. The school is also considering a plan to ask the authorities to mobilize more boats to escort students to school if the flooding continues.

Previously, Thanh Mai Secondary School was also severely affected by storm No. 10. The most serious damage was that all 40 computers in the IT room were completely damaged by the rain. The repair could not have been done without the support of the Education Department and local authorities.

At Dang Thai Mai Primary School, after a week of students being off school, this morning, the work of cleaning up the school and repairing the damage caused by storm No. 10 was just getting underway. The school representative also said that students will be able to return to school as usual by Tuesday morning at the earliest and the school will develop a make-up plan for students.

Through the discussion, Mr. Nguyen Khanh Thanh - Chairman of Bich Hao Commune People's Committee also said: After the flood passed, the commune mobilized forces together with the school to clean up the school and check the damaged equipment to have a repair plan in the coming time. To ensure the safety of students, this afternoon, the standing committee of the commune reviewed all the roads in the commune and the commune's viewpoint is to only let students go to school when absolute safety is ensured, to avoid unfortunate incidents.

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Over the past week, due to the impact of floods, many schools in Nghe An province in Thanh Chuong, Nam Dan, Hung Nguyen, Yen Thanh, Tan Ky, Quy Chau (old) districts were deeply submerged in water and affected the organization of teaching and learning. Therefore, in addition to the efforts of the schools and the support of local authorities, the Department has also requested schools to report the damage situation to have support plans in the coming time.

In addition, the Department also requires schools to proactively grasp the situation and only re-organize teaching when ensuring the necessary conditions to ensure absolute safety for teachers and students when going to school.

Mr. Nguyen Trong Hoan - Chief of Office of Department of Education and Training