Guwahati: As Assam’s schools prepare to reopen in Aug, flood-hit children in Sivasagar and Charaideo face classrooms without books, notebooks or bags.In 14 of Sivasagar’s worst-affected villages, where flash floods submerged homes for days, educational materials remain scarce even as food and other essentials arrive.Author Juri Borah Borgohain, a volunteer with NGO Hope – The Ray of Light, urged donors to prioritise school bags, books, notebooks, stationery, umbrellas and sandals to help students resume their education.Schools across Sivasagar and Charaideo also suffered extensive damage. Classrooms remain covered in silt and mud, walls were damaged, and midday-meal utensils, library books and official records were washed away.Among the worst affected is Rohiteswar Saikia Lower Primary School at Nepalikhuti near the Assam-Nagaland border. The village was among the first hit by the July 19 flash floods.“Please do not ask about books. We could not save anything in our homes—cattle, household items, documents, everything washed away,” said Class IV student Ranjit Konwar.Rupam Gogoi, who monitors 22 schools in the two districts as cluster resource centre coordinator, said, “Water went above the tin roof in the Nepalikhuti school; such was the situation. Whether in homes of the students or in the school, nothing was left. Books were washed away in floods.”A schoolgirl and her mother were swept away at Nepalikhuti, where nearly all kutcha houses were destroyed and only a few concrete structures survived.
